American Clean Energy Leadership Act Of 2009

In June 2009, the House of Representatives passed the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 (ACES). This climate and energy legislation included a number of provisions intended to help the U.S. reduce energy use through various energy efficiency measures. This analysis evaluates the energy efficiency provisions in ACES and finds that, in 2030, such provisions can save American consumers an average of $486 per household; create over 600,000 jobs; reduce carbon dioxide emissions by over 500 million metric tons (MMT); and avoid the need for 419 medium-sized coal-fired power plants. This analysis also demonstrates that improving the energy efficiency provisions in ACES by including a stand-alone energy efficiency resource standard (EERS) requiring 10 percent cumulative savings by 2020 (instead of the ACES Combined Efficiency and Renewable Electricity Standard, or CERES), directing one-third of electric local distribution company allowances to energy efficiency, and sustaining State Energy and Environmental Development funding at 9.5 percent of allowance revenue through 2030 provides significant additional consumer savings and carbon reductions and creates more jobs than the original bill. This analysis estimates that, by 2030, including these improvements in th bill can save American consumers an average of $832 per household; create over 1 million jobs; reduce carbon dioxide emissions by over 900 MMT; and avoid the need for 512 medium-sized coal-fired power plants. This report discusses these national-level impacts, breaks them down on a state-by-state basis, and describes the methodology for how these values were determined.