Efficient Appliances Save Energy -- and Money

NRDC: Setting the Standard

Energy efficiency standards may not be as high profile as saving endangered species or cleaning up toxic waste, but they are a hugely important cause for environmentalists.

Since their inception, these standards have saved consumers over $200 billion -- about $2,000 per household -- while cutting electricity use 5 percent and reducing levels of pollution that come from the power plants that produce the electricity by over 2 percent.

These savings are projected to more than double over the next 20 years even without new action. If NRDC's recommendations for new and updated standards are adopted, these savings will more than triple.

NRDC's energy program has played an important role in creating the framework under which continued improvements in appliance energy efficiency have occurred. NRDC led the negotiations that crafted the National Appliance Energy Conservation Act (1987), the law that impelled manufacturers to develop today's energy-efficient appliances.

In the early 1990s, David Goldstein, co-director of NRDC's energy program, proposed the Super Efficiency Refrigerator Program, which spurred development of the new refrigerator technology from which consumers are benefiting today.

Similar programs are offered by the Consortium for Energy Efficiency. David was awarded a 2002 MacArthur Fellowship for his innovative work proving that energy efficiency makes good economic sense.