It is difficult to remember such a spotlight on government spending, as an increasingly unbelievable public is forced to try and decipher trillion dollar deficits and so on. We do nevertheless need to encourage government action sometimes to spur major changes in the way that we live for our own good, especially when it comes to energy. We now know of multiple reasons why we should reduce our reliance on traditional fossil fuels. These include scarcity, security, the threat of terrorism, the lack of control and not the least, greenhouse gas emissions. Many of these issues combine to drive up the cost of fossil fuel supplied energy and we are aware that fuel inflation is far ahead of general inflation.
Federal energy efficiency grants have been introduced during 2009 and will likely accelerate in availability during 2010. The Recovery Act made available over $3 billion as part of the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant Program and within this schedule, nonprofit organizations and government agencies could receive grants to enable them to perform energy efficiency retrofits, as an example. The Recovery Act allocated over $60 billion in total toward energy related projects, studies and development of renewable energy options and federal energy efficiency solutions.
Taxpayer funds spent wisely at this stage in our development, even though the federal deficit is so large, will surely pay dividends in the future. Not only must we reduce the size of our national carbon footprint to cut back on greenhouse gas emissions and slow the pace of climate change, but we must all operate more efficiently for future security. National infrastructure, the distribution grid and production facilities are sometimes struggling to keep up with an increasing demand and this situation is only like to become more critical. If every organization and individual takes responsibility for reducing its energy use, then we will go a long way to alleviating some of these problems.
Congress is debating wide reaching legislation which could force the larger users of energy to trade for the rights to produce carbon as a consequence of using energy. This is also known as a “cap and trade” program and could force such organizations to become sustainable very quickly. If such legislation is to pass, it will likely also make available federal energy efficiency grants to help organizations comply.
If a company engages in retrofitting its existing systems, it can achieve savings of up to 35% rather quickly. Retrofitting is gaining in popularity very quickly as it presents an organization with the opportunity to enjoy considerable savings at relatively low cost. Almost every organization relies on an HVAC system to enable its operation. As these are traditionally one of the larger users of energy in a business, retrofitting such a system should be investigated rather urgently.
The ACES Act is likely to be passed during the course of 2010 and federal energy efficiency grants made available to help organizations become sustainable.
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