ENERGY EFFICIENCY—Smarter, more efficient energy use can reduce dangerous pollution from power plants, as well as lowering costs for households across the country. Even small cuts in daily energy waste can add up to large savings for states.

From the actions of emergency personnel on September 11 to the outpouring of generosity in the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, Americans show our best qualities when our backs are against the wall.

Now we face a new crisis—less immediate or lethal, for sure, than a terrorist attack or natural disaster, but with serious ramifications for the economy and for the health and safety of many Americans.

Energy Costs Rising
This winter, the government reports, many Americans are paying between $300 and $500 more than last year to heat their homes. The financial jolt comes on top of last winter’s already high home heating prices and on the heels of rising prices for gasoline, diesel fuel and electricity.

High heating prices are forcing low- and middle-income Americans to make painful choices this winter. The stakes are also high for the economy, with consumer confidence already taking a severe hit and consumers wallowing in record levels of debt.

Many people worry that high prices for energy are here to stay. While energy prices can be notoriously volatile, with global demand for energy soaring even as growth in the world’s supplies of oil and gas slows, more experts are predicting an end to the era of cheap energy.

Yet as typically happens in times of trial, Americans are responding creatively.

Many Americans are driving less. Public transit ridership is way up. And many Americans have prepared for this winter by weatherizing their homes.

Some Americans have winterized doors and windows, steps that could cut as much as 30 percent off monthly heating bills during peak winter months. Some have set their thermostats on timers, so they can lower the heat when they’re at work or school and still return to a comfortable home.

Some are buying more energy-efficient products, like compact fluorescent light bulbs and front-load washing machines. And some are insulating hot water heaters, so they can pay less to have hot water in the pipes.

Yet there’s so much more we could do to reduce our demand for energy. And since our leaders in Washington aren’t taking action, we’ll need to depend on a little help from our state and local leaders.

Conservation Lowers Prices
Remember the energy crisis in California during the winter of 2000-2001? To avoid another season of rolling blackouts and skyrocketing prices, California embarked on a PIRG-backed emergency energy conservation blitz, slashing its consumption by 6 percent within a single year, saving the economy billions of dollars.

How significant is a 6 percent reduction in energy use? According to the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, a 2 percent reduction in electricity and natural gas demand could trigger a 25 percent reduction in wholesale prices within a single year.

Of course, even with aggressive conservation measures, many lowincome families still need financial help to get through the winter. But saving energy now can reduce the economic burden they and all Americans will face now and into the future.

Energy-Saving Steps
PIRG researchers have compiled and distributed a long list of energy-saving policy ideas. Here are just a few of the steps that we’re asking state governors and other government leaders to take right now:

• Use the “bully pulpit” to set concrete goals for energy savings and to call on all sectors of society— from individual consumers to government to businesses—to do their part.

• Get energy-efficiency tools into the hands of people who need them. Every American who wants to use energy more wisely this winter should have the chance to do so. That means bolstering funds for weatherization programs, launching a major effort to educate the public about energy efficiency, and using new tax breaks and other incentives to get low-cost efficiency technologies into homes as soon as possible.

• Walk the talk. Government can’t call for conservation one minute and waste energy the next. State and federal governments should lead by example and curb their own energy use by using all the energysaving tools in their arsenal.

For example, state public utility commissions should cast a wary eye on rate hike requests by electric and natural gas utilities, and demand those utilities implement all cost-effective energy efficiency opportunities.

It would also help if the Bush administration immediately released new furnace efficiency standards, which have stalled for the past five years. Fortunately, at least one state isn’t waiting. In November, Massachusetts adopted new efficiency standards for furnaces and other products as part of a PIRG-backed bill.

Spurring Improved Efficiency
The PIRGs in Arizona, California, Connecticut, Maryland, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island and Vermont have helped win approval of standards that will spur energy-efficiency improvements in products, promising to save residents hundreds of millions of dollars in energy costs in the years to come.

Other PIRGs, including Georgia PIRG, have helped convince state leaders to declare sales tax holidays on products that have earned Energy Star labels for their high efficiency standards. Still other state PIRGs, such as Wisconsin PIRG, have helped enlist their governors in pledging to improve the energy efficiency of government buildings.

As they save consumers and businesses money, aggressive energy-saving measures are also good for our health and environment, reducing the demand for electricity generated by power plants that pollute our air, consume vast quantities of water, and burn through finite fossil fuels.

Of course, in the not-so-long run, the best way out of our current energy predicament is to start shifting more of our energy generation to clean, renewable sources like solar and wind power. For now, however, conservation and efficiency offer the quickest, cheapest and cleanest ways to mitigate the impacts of rising energy prices.

Time and again, Americans have responded to crises in ways that make the nation stronger. With a little help from our state and local governments, we can ease the hardships of this winter, safeguard our economy, and emerge from the current energy crunch stronger and more secure.

Senior energy policy analyst Rob Sargent and senior researcher Tony Dutzik contributed to the research and writing of this article.