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The Honorable John Kerry
The Honorable Lindsey Graham
The Honorable Joseph Lieberman
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510

Dear Senator Kerry, Senator Graham, and Senator Lieberman:

We write to you today as a broad coalition of energy efficiency businesses and advocates to urge swift passage of comprehensive energy and climate legislation. We know there are at least a million jobs that can be created by strong energy efficiency provisions in comprehensive legislation because many of us represent the companies in every state that are hiring now and can hire more if we have the support of federal energy and climate legislation. A comprehensive energy and climate policy is necessary to incentivize investment in energy efficiency, which remains the quickest and cheapest way to reduce consumer and industry energy costs, preserve energy security, and address environmental goals. Energy efficiency is a win-win for all of us in this debate on energy, climate, security and jobs policy.

While we support many of the provisions in the energy and climate legislative proposals to date, we feel that the debate continues to shortchange efficiency. We provide the following suggestions to maximize consumer and business financial savings, greenhouse gas emissions reductions and job creation.

First, we must limit carbon emissions. Without a carbon limit, utilities and regulators may continue to choose expensive construction of new carbon-intensive power plants, instead of energy efficiency. In addition, a substantial portion of the carbon allowances needs to be allocated to support state and utility energy efficiency investments, along with key federal research, development, and deployment initiatives. State and utility efficiency investments have already demonstrated tremendous success, saving consumers $2 to $4 for every $1 invested. Investment of allowance value in efficiency reduces the overall cost of the climate program for everyone by saving energy consumers money.

Second, we urge the Senate to include an Energy Efficiency Resource Standard (EERS) of at least 10% by 2020 that will save consumers billions of dollars and reduce greenhouse gas emissions significantly. Utilities require a means to meet their expected load growth for the next decade and efficiency can fill that requirement in every state while providing both a level playing field and opportunities for consumers and businesses throughout our country.

Eighteen states have already established an EERS that puts them on track for hitting this goal; a national EERS will bring these savings to all states.

Third, climate and energy legislation should support aggressive development, implementation and enforcement of building energy codes and appliance efficiency standards, along with effective building labeling and voluntary programs. These codes, standards, and programs represent a great opportunity for our country to address energy use in existing and new buildings. They have been shown to provide net cost savings for consumers and industry alike.

Last, various bills authorize significant new programs to retrofit residences, commercial and multi-family buildings, and factories. These programs need to be not only authorized but also funded, in order to reap the tremendous potential benefits. The American economy can save $1.2 trillion dollars in gross energy costs and reduce energy consumption by approximately 23% of projected demand, according to a recent study by McKinsey, if we invest $520 billion in energy efficiency by 2020. Legislation designed to make our nation more energy efficient must make a significant down-payment on this investment, which can be done through allocations of greenhouse gas emission allowances or other equivalent means, and can be leveraged with private sector dollars

Good energy and climate policy starts with energy efficiency. Fortunately the net benefits are all positive and the jobs are real. Good energy and climate legislation needs to set the right priorities and help with the upfront costs of efficiency investments, and we believe the above suggestions do both. We thus urge your support for comprehensive energy and climate legislation with strong energy efficiency policies that will help us create the jobs of the future in every state.