AGA Commends Senate Leaders for Action on Energy Efficiency

Washington, D.C. – This week’s mark-up of national energy efficiency legislation by members of the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources marks an important step toward an energy package, according to the American Gas Association (AGA), which represents America’s natural gas utilities.

“We commend Senators Bingaman and Domenici for their strong bipartisan advocacy on behalf of energy consumers and greater energy efficiency,” said Rick Shelby, AGA executive vice president for public affairs. “Natural gas utilities support energy efficiency measures and have been providing their customers with the tools to make wise energy choices for many years.” Shelby said, “In fact, natural gas households and businesses have made significant contributions toward using less energy: the average natural gas consumer used 33 percent less natural gas at home in 2006 compared to 1980.” (According to “An Economic Analysis of Consumer Response to Natural Gas Prices,” study released in April.)

Shelby noted that “AGA supports language in the legislation that calls upon state utility commissions to examine the potential of adopting utility rate designs that ‘decouple’ the costs of delivering energy from the volume of natural gas delivered.” According to AGA, these types of designs could lead to greater energy efficiency gains if deemed appropriate for each natural gas utility and state’s unique situation. Shelby said, “However we’re disappointed to see that appliance efficiency language includes the possibility of the Department of Energy establishing regional standards, which natural gas utilities believe will burden appliance manufacturers and lead to more energy use, not less.”

Finally, Shelby said that AGA hopes that supply issues will also be addressed as part of any energy package that moves forward. Natural gas is expected to play a major role in any climate change policies, making it even more important to increase access to natural gas supplies in order to meet growing demand for electricity generation. A recent study by the American Gas Foundation found that a failure to take aggressive action on increasing supplies in combination with energy efficiency could cost natural gas customers $200 billion by 2020.