Close

Your request has been taken into account.

An email has just been sent to you with a link to download the resource :)

The US Department of Energy proposes New Energy Standards

Climate change is encouraging countries to implement new environmental policies to curb emissions – how is the U.S. Department of Energy going to help with energy efficiency?
Ecology News
2023-01-06T00:00:00.000Z
en-us
U.S. flag

Climate change really took the world by storm in the past calendar year, with several countries creating new commitments to fight against the effects of global warming. The U.S. alone saw a new climate bill alongside several new state legislation implemented in order to curb the effects of rising temperatures and help the nation achieve their net-zero emission goals.

wind turbine with mountains in background

What are the new propositions discussed in the new energy standards by the U.S. Department of Energy – and how could these new energy standards help the U.S. to work towards their other environmental goals?

What is energy efficiency?

Before understanding the propositions of the new energy standards presented by the U.S. Department of Energy – it is important to understand the meaning of energy efficiency and the potential benefits.

Energy efficiency is the process of completing a task with less energy required through another method. In other words, energy efficiency is the concept of accomplishing the same goal even with the restricted use of power or availability of resources. 

A good example is thinking of energy efficiency like trying to preserve your phone battery when you don’t have the opportunity to charge your phone anytime soon, but need it to last longer. There are a few things you can do to preserve the battery and ensure the phone continues working at maximized efficiency for as long as possible with the battery it has left – such as by lowering the brightness of the screen, closing ongoing applications in the background, and keeping your phone on airplane mode as searching for a signal is also power consuming. 

Odds are, by implementing all of these tactics or by simply turning on the power-saver-mode setting – your phone battery will last longer than intended, even with the same amount of charge it is accustomed to having. This is precisely the goal of energy efficiency. 

The benefits of energy efficiency include reduced costs, greenhouse gas emissions, and water usage – all things that are good for both a company or individual’s wallet, and the planet. Energy efficiency can also help individuals and businesses to be more productive without burning through finite resources. 

How is the new energy standard implemented by the U.S. Department of Energy related to energy efficiency?

person holding light bulb in their hands

What is the new energy standard presented by the U.S. department of energy? 

On December 28th, 2022, the U.S. Department of Energy, also known as the DOE for short – announced new energy efficiency standards for three different categories in order to improve the nation’s power grid, reduce utility bills, and reduce greenhouse gas and carbon dioxide emissions in order to help the country achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.

The new energy standard proposes to implement a new energy strategy which would involve transitioning to the use of newer technologies which would help to promote energy efficiency and ultimately reduce costs while also preserving energy. Transformers to be produced following the implementation of the new energy standard would be made with amorphous steel cores, which are more energy efficient than the current transformers being used with electrical steel. The earliest that these new energy standards could be employed is by 2027.

Why is the new energy standard important?

The U.S. is one of the highest emitting countries in the world when it comes to greenhouse gas emissions, and also serves as one of the world’s global leaders given their powerhouse capabilities. If the U.S. continues to make curbing climate change a priority and extends their resources to other developing countries unable to fund or implement the changes necessary to reduce emissions – other countries around the world will be more likely to take part in the fight against climate change as well. 

The new energy standard could help to drastically reduce emissions and help the U.S. achieve their environmental goals, many of the more ambitious ones set forth more recently by the Biden administration. This is because the new transformers required under the new energy standard will make delivering electrical power more affordable and accessible across the nation – and that accessibility and lower cost will also be helping to reduce the emissions created in each of those households receiving the power. In other words, the new energy standard imposed by the U.S. Department of Energy can create a domino effect of continued reduced carbon and greenhouse emissions throughout the country – which will aid in the increasingly challenging fight against climate change. 

In fact, the U.S. Department of Energy has calculated that if the new energy standard is successfully implemented – it could result in a whopping 340 million metric tons less tons of carbon dioxide emissions over the course of the next 30 years. This could drastically help the United States to achieve  net-zero emissions and mitigate the continuous devastating effects of climate change – such as natural disasters and heat waves that leave everyone in peril. In addition to this new energy standard helping in the fight against climate change, it can also help the nation to save money – up to $15 billion a year.

us bills

The new energy standard proposed by the U.S. Department of Energy could prove very beneficial for the country both economically and for the health and prosperity of U.S. citizens – but are there potential setbacks to implementing this new energy standard?

What are the potential challenges of implementing the new energy standard?

The U.S. Department of Energy isn’t completely ready to establish this new energy standard just yet. For instance, the Biden administration has to address the issues regarding supply chain management and improve the process for manufacturing crucial parts of the electricity grids themselves. However, this roadblock of the new energy standard is already in progress – with the Biden administration already using the Defense Production Act to ensure that the production of technologies to be used in conjunction with clean energy are functioning as they should. This product act is also working to ensure a prosperous distribution of these new and improved energy grids. 

In fact, the U.S. Department of Energy requested additional information from the public in order to establish these new potential energy standards with public consumption and energy use in mind. This way, the U.S. Department of Energy can prevent establishing the grids in a useful manner. After all, the new grids are to be used by citizens of the country – so they may as well be implemented with U.S. consideration towards the typical energy consumption and utility bills of Amercians.

Is there a way to make sure that the new energy standard proposed by the U.S. Department of Energy will be a success?

How can the U.S. Department of Energy successfully implement the new energy standard?

The new energy standard proposed by the U.S. Department of Energy has the potential to be a massive success, but there are several roadblocks that could get in the way from the new energy standard being effective. For instance, the new energy standard proposes to shift the use of traditional electrical grids in favor of transitioning to new electrical grids that will help to improve energy efficiency. While this will ultimately help the nation in reducing overall emissions, it could prove difficult to find the funding necessary to manufacture these new energy grids. 

How can the U.S. government help the U.S. Department of Energy prevent these potentially difficult circumstances?

Thankfully, the Biden administration has already put a few other legislative matters in motion to make implementing the new energy standard proposed by the U.S. Department of Energy a little easier for them. For instance, the Biden administration has already helped to fund the Energy Act of 2020 – which supports the research and development of clean energy in order to reduction carbon emissions and help the U.S. meet their environmental goals. The Energy Act of 2020 is funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which was created by Biden himself as an effort to improve the infrastructure across the country: such as road conditions, build new bridges and rails, and improve the access and availability to clean drinking water. Sustainable infrastructure can help to reduce emissions; continuous efforts like these by the Biden administration can allow for new energy standards to be implemented with ease. 

gavel and judge signing papers

While the new energy standard proposed by the U.S. Department of Energy is important and can help the country to drastically reduce emissions, are there other areas in which the U.S. could seek to rectify for greater environmental improvement?

How else can the U.S. seek to reduce nation-wide emissions?

The new energy standards proposed by the U.S. Department of Energy isn’t the first effort for the nation to cut its carbon emissions – states like California have passed new environmental legislation to encourage citizens to cut back on high carbon emitting activities and purchases, and the country as a whole has seen the new climate bill aimed to incentivize American citizens to implement more sustainable measures wherever possible. 

One of the biggest culprits behind excessive emissions in the U.S. continues to come from road travel from gasoline powered vehicles – which is probably one of the reasons why California has banned the purchasing of gasoline powered vehicles from 2035 onwards in order to encourage the use of public transportation or electric cars. Therefore, if the U.S. government continues to incentivize citizens to make the shift towards public transportation and reduce their own daily carbon footprint – the nation could see a drastic drop in overall emissions.

Solar pangels with snowy mountains and blue skies

The great thing about the U.S. is its powerhouse capabilities – in other words, the U.S. has the money and the resources to significantly reduce the effects of climate change and help lower the global surface temperature. For example, data shows that the U.S. has increased the amount of energy harvested from solar panels and wind turbines – with the capacity for accumulating this renewable energy having increased between two and seven times faster than it has in the past ten years. If the U.S. continues on this trajectory, emissions could indeed be cut in half from 2005 levels by 2030.

The new energy standards proposed by the U.S. Department of Energy has a huge potential to help the nation reduce emissions across the country with ease, and better yet – encourage and employ even more tactics to help create a brighter, safer future for the world. 

What about Greenly? 

If reading this article about the new energy standards proposed by the U.S. department of energy has made you interested in reducing your carbon emissions to further fight against climate change – Greenly can help you!

Greenly can help you make an environmental change for the better, starting with a carbon footprint assessment to know how much carbon emissions your company produces.

Smiling man with beard and glasses wearing blue shirt
Yellow logo that reads, "time to change"

Green-Tok, a newsletter dedicated to climate green news

We send green news once a month (or more if you find the things we write about interesting)

More Articles

Ecology News
image of the world as seen from outer space

2024 Elections: Shaping the Global Future

Kara Anderson
By
Kara Anderson

In this article we’ll explore the most crucial elections of 2024, examining what their outcomes could mean for the environment.

Policy