Better late than never. As promised in my last entry on the buildings sections of the Waxman Markey draft, here is a review of the appliance section.

Subtitle B - Lighting and Appliance Energy Efficiency Programs

Sec 211 - Lighting Efficiency Standards - This section would set standards for outdoor lights, portable light fixtures, and certain incandescent reflector lamps. Outdoor lights are street lights and other similar fixtures, and this standard helps pave the way for the conversion of these fixtures to extremely efficient light emitting diodes (LEDs). Philips Lighting estimates that this standard will save consumers $3.6 billion and reduce annual CO2 emissions by 16 million metric tons once all fixtures are replaced. These lights are often used for long hours so it makes a lot of sense to move them to LEDs where the savings will build up quickly and hasten the decline in prices of LEDs for other purposes.

The portable lighting standard addresses floor and table lamps. California adopted a similar standard in 2008 and this section would expand standards to all states. ACEEE estimates annual savings of 2.6 million metric tons CO2 and $662 million dollars a year by 2020.

And finally, buried underneath pages and pages on outdoor and portable lights, there is language that would close the BR lamp loophole that I have blogged about previously. A similar provision is also under consideration in the Senate. This is great news for the current rulemaking at DOE, which is the largest potential energy saver in the program's history, and comes on the heels of DOE stating its intent to close this loophole during a Senate hearing a few weeks ago. This is a big win for efficiency, but there is still time for you to tell DOE to improve the proposed lamp standard, so we can clearly see that your voice is being heard.

Sec 212 - Other Appliance Efficiency Standards - This section sets three additional standards for water dispensers, hot food holding cabinets, and portable electric space. This is the section that prompted the WSJ to quote Eddie Murphy (classic!). The standards won't actually make your hot tub less hot or bubbly, so don't worry. What it and the other standards will do is save a huge amount of energy and money. ACEEE estimates the annual savings in 2020 for these three standards will be 750 million kWh, a half million metric tons of CO2, and $600 million dollars.

Sec 213 - Appliance Efficiency Determinations and Procedures - This section contains several common sense improvements to the standard setting process at the Dept of Energy. This isn't a full list, but here are some highlights:

• Multiple metrics - Clarifies DOE's authority to use more than one performance requirement if cost effective energy savings are possible.
• TV test methods - Repeals the current federal TV test procedure and directs DOE to develop a new one. This is a real "duh" provision. The current test procedure is over 30 years old, and TVs have changed a little bit since then. The test procedure wasn't designed for plasmas, LCDs, or HDTVs and uses a black and white static pattern. Since it is a federal test procedure, it preempts better tests and seriously handicaps any state's ability to measure and control TV energy use.
• Carbon valuation - Directs DOE to consider the value of avoided carbon emissions when setting a standard. DOE currently pretends that carbon has no value and will not for the next 30 years. We may not know what the best price of carbon to use in the analysis is, but we know that it isn't zero.
• Energy price effects - Directs DOE to consider reductions in energy prices that may occur due to standards. They currently ignore this benefit.
• State enforcement - Allows states to seek injunctive enforcement of standards. Currently, only the Feds can enforce standards, but they aren't funded to do this, so this provision allows states to get involved.
• State building codes - Allows states options to go beyond federal minimum standards in their building codes. States are actually preempted from increasing their building energy codes if the code would require more efficient than standard appliances. This provision gives states more flexibility to increase their codes without being preempted and is extremely important to states like CA that want to go above and beyond existing codes.

Sec 214 - Best-in-Class Appliances Deployment (BICAD) Program - This section creates BICAD, an incentive program for retailers and manufacturers, designed to increase the market share of the most efficient appliances. Retailers would get incentives for selling super efficient products (top 10%), and manufacturers would be rewarded for introducing products that are even more efficient than the current generation (sometimes this is called a "golden carrot" program). Retailers would also get bounties for taking low efficiency appliances and recycling them. This program builds on the success of utility programs that have determined that targeting incentives upstream is more effective than just giving rebates to consumers. Retailers will be able to buy more efficient products (and bring down the cost) while marketing and running sales around the qualifying products such that the consumer will actually benefit more from price drops in super efficient products.

There you have it, the greatest hits of Subtitle B. Clearly, Mr. Waxman and Mr. Markey understand how important it is to take advantage of energy efficiency in our buildings and appliances as demonstrated by the very smart and aggressive programs in this section. Hopefully we will see all of these provisions survive or improve when Congress passes climate change legislation.