PLANET AGENDA

Action Plans now, to save energy, can greatly help lessen the impact of the older, more polluting technologies the Bush Energy bill is now working to get through Congress! 

Information from the Alliance to Save Energy

Bush Budget Expected to Include Crippling Cuts to the DOE Energy Efficiency and Renewable R&D Budget

Write President Bush Urging Critical Research Funds Be Restored

The Alliance to Save Energy urges you to take the following talking points and craft your own letter to the President. Individual letters receive individual attention, where mass mailings are frequently bundled up and ignored.

The Problem:

As the country deals with a mounting energy crisis, the Administration proposes cutting over 30 percent of the energy efficiency and renewable energy research and development programs budget.

Since last fall, with the onset of cold weather, consumers have seen a dramatic increase in their energy bills from last year.
California is faced with an energy crisis that could cause a breakdown not only in that state's economy, and which may well affect the rest of the U.S.
The country's demand for natural gas is increasing faster than supplies.
Our national security is at stake with an increasing reliance on foreign oil imports.

What Do the Programs Do?

Department of Energy (DOE) research, development, and deployment programs conceive and nurture new energy-efficient technologies and get them from the laboratory to useful application in the marketplace. Many products that are commonplace today, such as electronic ballasts for fluorescent lights or highly efficient window glass were hatched or materially assisted by DOE's national labs.

DOE's efficiency programs currently save consumers more than $25 billion each year. In fact, according to the President's Budget request (page 410): "In total, the Department's energy efficiency programs are projected to save consumers and businesses over $30 billion per year by the year 2010."

These programs focus on improving energy efficiency in buildings, transportation, and industrial processes, as well as how the federal government can save energy in its buildings and facilities.
As a nation, we have spent approximately $12 billion since 1978 on energy-efficiency research, development, and deployment. A small group of selected, audited technological achievements by DOE - a fraction of the overall achievements -- in energy-efficiency have returned more than $100 billion to the U.S. economy during that period and facilitated large reductions in the emission of air pollution.

What Do the Cuts Mean to You?

With cuts in funding:

Updating and improving appliance efficiency standards that could save consumers billions of dollars each year would diminish.
Research and development will be reduced by 32 percent on average for super-efficient cars, appliances, heating and cooling systems, windows, and lighting products.

Programs educating consumers on energy-efficient appliances and energy-savings tips in homes and businesses would dwindle.

Efforts to improve and make solar energy, wind power, and other clean, renewable energy sources more affordable will be limited.

Funding for partnerships aimed at developing cleaner, more efficient ways of making steel, aluminum, paper, and other energy-intensive products would lessen.

Solutions

Increased - not cut - funding for these programs.
An energy policy that stimulates energy efficiency improvements and encourages expansion of energy supplies.
Broad awareness that energy efficiency is the quickest and cheapest way to increase our nation's energy supply.

You may send your letters to:

President George W Bush
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, DC
20500

To find your Congressional Representative, visit:
http://www.house.gov/house/MemberWWW.html

To find your Senator, visit:
http://www.senate.gov/

This information is provided by The Alliance to Save Energy website at:

http://www.ase.org/takeaction/alert03-16.htm

The Alliance to Save Energy
1200 18th Street, NW, Suite 900
Washington, DC 20036
Phone: 202/857-0666    Fax: 202/331-9588
info@ase.org                     www.ase.org

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