The Low-Hanging Fruit of Climate Change &ndash; Water and Energy Efficiency Standards

Insights: Publications The Low-Hanging Fruit of Climate Change – Water and Energy Efficiency Standards

Kilpatrick Townsend Environmental Reg Watch Blog

April 15, 2021

Written by Susan H. Richardson

Over the past four years, we have been faced with several thought provoking questions – What is a showerhead? How many times do you have to run a dishwasher to get clean dishes? What type of lightbulb best illuminates a President? The Trump Administration’s Department of Energy (DOE) attempted to answer these questions by taking a new look at established energy and water efficiency standards resulting in the hydra-like showerhead and water jets from shower walls, a rollback of light bulb standards and a complete change in the process of how efficiency is determined. On his first day in office, President Biden announced that his administration will launch a federal review of these Trump-era water and energy efficiency standards. (See Executive Order on Protecting Public Health and the Environment and Restoring Science to Tackle the Climate Crisis). Importantly, energy efficiency standards provide low-hanging fruit toward President Biden’s Climate Change goals of achieving a carbon-pollution free electricity sector by 2035 and a net-zero carbon emissions economy by 2050.

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