Obama flicks switch on household appliance efficiency standards

The whirlwind of new green initiatives emanating from the Obama White House continued yesterday when the president ordered the Department of Energy to resuscitate long-stalled plans for higher energy efficiency standards for household appliances, such as ovens, dishwashers and air conditioners.

Higher energy efficiency standards have been repeatedly put forward by Congress over the past decade, but were consistently blocked by the Bush administration.

Now, in a further attempt to distance himself from his predecessor's environmental policies, Obama has issued a presidential memo instructing the energy department to deliver new higher energy efficiency standards as early as next August.

Speaking on a visit to the energy department with his new energy secretary Steven Chu, Obama said there were clear environmental and economic benefits to imposing higher standards.

"This will save consumers money. This will spur innovation and this will conserve tremendous amounts of energy," he said.

The first wave of higher standards is expected to cover nine appliances, including ovens, microwaves, lamps, dishwashers and air conditioners. They are likely to be followed by further standards with the directive covering 30 household and commercial appliances over all.

The White House said the standards should deliver energy savings of $500bn (£341bn) for consumers, while cutting carbon emissions to the equivalent of two years worth of emissions from all of America's coal-fired power plants over the course of 30 years.

Obama said the new standards would also be supported by a raft of energy efficiency measures to be included in his proposed economic stimulus package. The $900bn package includes around $30bn that has been earmarked for energy-saving programmes primarily designed to enhance building energy efficiency.

The move comes just a day after the Environmental Protection Agency demonstrated its new robust approach to regulatory enforcement, teaming up with the Justice Department to file a lawsuit against Westar Energy, claiming the company breached the Clean Air Act for over a decade by updating one of its coal-fired power plants without installing new pollution controls.

Westar said in a statement that it was committed to cutting emissions from its plant and that many of the allegations in the suit related to changes made over 10 years ago.

"We are good environmental stewards, and that is why over the last several years, we have invested nearly $500m to remove up to 90 per cent of the very emissions that the EPA has targeted with its complaint," it said. "We also expect to invest more than $1bn in additional equipment over the next five years."

But the Justice Department and the EPA responded by claiming there was a strong case for tougher enforcement of the Clean Air Act.

"Coal-fired power plants collectively produce more pollution than any other industry in the US," they said in a joint statement. "They account for nearly 70 per cent of sulfur dioxide emissions each year and 20 per cent of nitrogen oxides emissions. Emissions from coal-fired power plants have detrimental health effects on asthma sufferers, the elderly and children."

Environmental groups have long complained that energy companies have skirted round regulations requiring them to install pollution control technologies when undertaking plant upgrades by classifying large projects as routine maintenance works.

Green groups are now hopeful that the Westar suit could mark the first case in a series of prosecutions against coal-fired power station operators.