Energy and Economic Impacts of U.S. Federal Energy and Water Conservation Standards Adopted From 1987 Through 2010

This paper presents estimates of the key impacts of the energy and water conservation standards that have been adopted from 1987 through 2010. The standards covered include those set by legislation as well as standards adopted by DOE through rulemaking. We estimate that energy efficiency standards for consumer products and certain commercial and industrial equipment that have been adopted from 1987 through 2010 saved 3.0 quads in 2010, have had a cumulative energy savings of 25.9 quads through 2010 and will achieve cumulative energy savings of 158 quads over the period 1990-2070. Thus, the majority of the savings are still to come as products subject to standards enter the stock. Furthermore, the standards will have a cumulative net present value (NPV) of consumer benefit of between $851 billion and $1,103 billion, using 7 percent and 3 percent discount rates, respectively. In addition, we estimate the water conservation standards, together with those energy conservation standards that also save water, saved residential consumers 1.5 trillion gallons of water in 2010, have had cumulative water savings of 11.7 trillion gallons through 2010, and will achieve cumulative water savings by 2040 of 51.4 trillion gallons