Climate and energy

From the AP: Calif. requires TVs to be more energy-efficient

By SAMANTHA YOUNG (AP) – 11 hours ago

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California regulators have adopted the nation’s first energy-efficiency standards for televisions, a move that will eventually ban power-hungry sets from the state’s store shelves.

Wednesday’s action by the California Energy Commission could lead the way in a general reform of standards for an industry increasingly focused on wide-view, flat-screen, high-definition sets.

The 5-0 vote by the California Energy Commission is just the latest effort by the state to secure its place in the forefront of the environmental movement.

California represents such a big consumer market that environmental groups hope the new standards will lead manufacturers to make energy-saving TVs for the rest of the nation, just as California’s stringent fuel standards for cars and trucks forced automakers to produce more efficient models for all of the U.S.

“Once again, California is leading the way, and we hope others will follow,” said Noah Horowitz, senior scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Some manufacturers warned that the regulations will cripple innovation, limit consumer choice and hurt California stores, because people could simply buy TVs out of state or online. The industry also complained that manufacturers will be forced to make televisions with poorer picture quality and fewer features than those sold elsewhere in the U.S.

“Instead of allowing customers to choose the products they want, the commission has decided to impose arbitrary standards that will hamper innovation and limit consumer choice,” said Jason Oxman, a vice president with the Consumer Electronics Association. “It will result in higher prices for consumers, job losses for Californians, and lost tax revenue for the state.”

Californians buy about 11 percent of the 35.4 million TVs sold in the U.S. each year, according to industry figures. The industry group said it was already working with the federal government to promote more efficient TVs through the federal Energy Star program.

“We have every confidence this industry will be able to meet the rule and then some,” Energy Commissioner Julia Levin said. “It will save consumers money, it will help protect public health, and it will spark innovation.”

At least one TV manufacturer has said it could meet the standards — Vizio Inc., the largest seller of flat screens.

The regulations requiring televisions to be more efficient will be phased in beginning in 2011.

The new standards will apply to new televisions up to 58 inches. Those larger than 58 inches, which account for no more than 3 percent of the market, were left out in a concession to sellers of high-end home-theater TVs. But the commission is expected to regulate them in the future.

The commission estimates that TVs account for about 10 percent of a home’s electricity use. The fear is that energy use will rise as people buy bigger, more elaborate TVs, put more of them in their homes, and watch them longer.

The average plasma TV uses more than three times as much energy as an old cathode-ray tube set. Liquid-crystal display, or LCD, TVs use about 43 percent more energy than tube sets, according to Pacific Gas & Electric Co., the state’s biggest utility. LCDs now account for about 90 percent of the 4 million TVs sold in California each year.

Under the rules adopted Wednesday, all new 42-inch TV sets must use less than 183 watts by 2011 and less than 116 watts by 2013.

That is considerably more efficient than flat-screen TVs placed on the market in recent years. A 42-inch Hitachi plasma TV sold in 2007 uses 313 watts, while a 42-inch Sharp Liquid-crystal display, or LCD, TV draws 232 watts, according to the Energy Commission.

The energy commission previously set aggressive energy-efficiency standards for refrigerators, washing machines and other household appliances, paving the way for more efficient models sold nationwide.

E&E News (subscription only): Coalition begins push to add building provisions to climate bill

By Alex Kaplun

A coalition of business, labor and energy groups said today that it will push lawmakers to include provisions in the climate bill — or some other legislative measure — that would put the country on a path to retrofitting 50 million buildings by 2020.

Organizers of the effort, named Rebuilding America, unveiled a blueprint for achieving that target at an event on Capitol Hill this afternoon and said they will look to move the provisions through one or more of the legislative items currently sitting before Congress — including the climate bill and a potential jobs bill. The coalition includes groups such as the Center for American Progress, the AFL-CIO, the Consumer Federation of America and the Energy Future Coalition.

A handful of lawmakers — including Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) and Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) — also appeared at the event and signed onto the proposal.

Reid Detchon, executive director of the Energy Future Coalition, said the groups had already sent a letter to every member of the Senate asking for inclusion of their proposal in some legislative package. Representatives of the effort have also met with White House energy adviser Carol Browner and will meet with some lawmakers. “We’re going to look for whatever opportunity we have,” he said.

Both the climate change bill that the House approved earlier this year and the version that is currently being considered in the Senate already have some efficiency provisions, but officials from the coalition said they would like to see lawmakers implement a number of other policies.

Specifically, the groups urge Congress to establish a stand-alone, national energy efficiency resource standard of 10 percent by 2020; direct at least one-third of utility allowances toward energy efficiency and increase the state allowance allocation for renewables and efficiency; support financing tools for energy efficiency; and establish provisions for accelerated depreciation and investment tax credits for a number of energy-efficient technologies and appliances.

The groups estimate that if their plan is fully implemented, it could sustain more than 600,000 jobs and eliminate at least 42 million tons of carbon emissions each year.

E&E News (subscription only) : Evangelicals partner with scientists on climate concerns

By Dina Fine Maron

With international talks in Copenhagen fast approaching, religious leaders are joining the chorus of groups speaking out on the importance of addressing climate change.

At a meeting on Capitol Hill, evangelical Christians and scientists partnered up to call for U.S. action on climate change, though they did not formally endorse any legislation on the issue.

“We are speaking with one voice because human behavior is imperiling life on Earth. We have a deep and fundamental reverence for all living things,” said Eric Chivian, a Harvard Medical School professor who founded the alliance between the groups in partnership with the Rev. Richard Cizik, president of the “New Evangelicals.” The delegation of scientists and evangelical Christians met with Obama’s chief science adviser, John Holdren, and the director of the Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships earlier in the morning.

Cizik called denying the link between human activity and global warming “willful blindness” and said that he believes evangelicals, though historically aligned with the Republican Party and more unwilling than others to take steps to fight global warming, are accepting the science behind global warming in greater numbers than in the past. He says that climate change is one of the top five issues most important to young evangelicals.

Still, a survey last spring from the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life found that only about 1 in 3 white evangelical Christians accepts that global warming is largely caused by human activity.

The ‘human rights issue of the 21st century’

Other religious groups have also preached on the importance of sustainable environmental action, and leaders from all the world’s major religions have called fighting climate change a “moral imperative.”

The Telegraph newspaper reported earlier this month that Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom hosted an interfaith dialogue on climate change at England’s Windsor Castle earlier this month sponsored by the United Nations and Prince Philip’s Alliance of Religions and Conservation. Baha’ism, Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Shintoism, Sikhism and Taoism were all represented.

At the conference, leaders shared some of their strategies to address climate change. Notably, the grand mufti of Egypt committed to a seven-year initiative to make the Muslim faith more eco-friendly and unveiled an immediate plan to make the city of Medina the first Islamic city to go “green.”

Catholic leaders, too, have a long history of calling environmental preservation a “moral concern” and emphasizing the need to preserve the Earth for future generations. The Vatican, home to the Holy See, became the first carbon-neutral sovereign state in 2007. Its buildings were fitted with solar panels to supply electricity, and an eco-restoration firm donated enough trees in a Hungarian national park to nullify all the carbon emissions of the city. Pope Benedict XVI supported both measures.

At the event in Washington, the Rev. Gerald Durley, a Baptist civil rights leader who has fought for racial, housing and human rights equality, said, “What good is it if we have those rights if we’re dead?”

“[This] is the human rights issue of the 21st century,” Cizik echoed.