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A report released today by the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy has crafted an economic development strategy that could create 22,000 jobs in South Carolina by 2025. It also asserts that the state’s consumers could save some $5 billion in water and electricity bills if its suggested recommendations are enacted.
By Chelsea Hadaway
chadaway@scbiznews.com
Published Nov. 11, 2009
A report released today by the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy has crafted an economic development strategy that could create 22,000 jobs in South Carolina by 2025.
The report, titled South Carolina’s Energy Future: Minding its Efficiency Resources, details specific savings and job creation that could come from the state’s efforts toward energy efficiency. It laid out several electricity and water policy recommendations that would help.
“We can use this research to send us on a bright and efficient path,” said S.C. Sen. Glenn McConnell, who was among a group of leaders assembled today at the Half Moon Outfitters distribution center in North Charleston.
Some of the policy recommendations in the report include the creation of energy-efficiency standards such as low-income weatherization, manufactured homes initiatives and rural and agricultural initiatives.
S.C. Sen. Paul Campbell said money is available now through the federal stimulus to help low-income residents weatherize their homes. Campbell supports many of the findings in the report, including the creation of standards in new construction and offers of incentives for retrofitting of older homes.
Another part of the report focused on water efficiency, including policies such as plumbing efficiency standards and efficient landscape irrigation.
Max Neubauer, a council researcher who helped write the report, said an often-overlooked way water use can be cut is through reductions in the amount of water used for thermal electric cooling in power plants.
If energy use is reduced, power plants won’t need to create as much electricity, thus reducing the amount of water needed to cool the plants, he said. Power plant cooling is currently the state’s largest off-stream use of water.
By implementing these policies and recommendations, the council’s report said S.C. consumers could reduce their spending on electricity and water bills by $5.1 billion by 2025. In addition, almost 22,000 sustainable jobs would be created locally.
The council also offers states funding and support to help them enact the changes it advocates, policy director Suzanne Watson said. Support can include working with state legislators to brief committees, running studies on the impact of policies, and providing program analysis, she said.
Reach Chelsea Hadaway at 843-849-3142.
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