Obama Administration Launches New Energy Efficiency Efforts
"Building on the action by the U.S. House of Representatives in passing historic legislation that will pave the way for the transition to a clean energy economy, President Barack Obama and U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu today announced aggressive actions to promote energy efficiency and save American consumers billions of dollars per year. Today’s announcement underscores how the clean energy revolution not only makes environmental sense, but it also makes economic sense – creating jobs and saving money...
Today’s announcement includes major changes to energy conservation standards for numerous household and commercial lamps and lighting equipment. Seven percent of all energy consumed in the U.S. is for lighting.

The final rule has numerous benefits, including:

* Avoiding the emission of up to 594 million tons of CO2 from 2012 through 2042 – roughly equivalent to removing 166 million cars from the road for a year;
* Saving consumers $1 to $4 billion annually from 2012 through 2042;
* Saving enough electricity from 2012 through 2042 to power every home in the U.S. for up to 10 months;
* Eliminating the need for up to 7.3 gigawatts of new generating capacity by 2042 – equivalent to as many as 14 500MW coal-fired power plants;
* Decreasing the electricity used in GSFLs by 15%, saving consumers up to $8.66 per lamp over its lifetime; decreasing electricity used by IRLs by 25%, saving consumers $7.95 per lamp over its lifetime."