Building the Clean Energy Economy: Waxman-Markey American Clean Energy and Security Act

By the Numbers

Jobs:

• Moving to a clean energy economy and transitioning off foreign oil will create whole new industries and millions of new jobs. A recent jobs study concluded that the American Clean Energy and Security Act and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act would create 1.7 million new clean energy jobs. [Center for American Progress]
• The energy efficiency provisions alone in the American Clean Energy and Security Act will generate 770,000 jobs by 2030. [ACEEE]
• Dollar for dollar, investments in a clean energy economy will create four times as many jobs as investments in the oil and gas industry.
• Jobs in the clean energy economy grew more than 9 percent, two and one-half times the rate for traditional jobs between 1998 and 2007.

Energy Independence:

• U.S. consumers are exporting $400 billion a year to pay for foreign oil. Over half of the oil we use is imported from foreign countries (57% in 2008), up from 27 percent in 1985 and 51 percent in 1999.
• America's energy bill will increase by $420 billion annually within the next 5 years if we do nothing to reduce our dependence on oil and fossil fuels. That amounts to $3,500 annually for every family in the nation. [NRDC]
• The bill will cut the use of oil and petroleum products by 1.4 million barrels a day in 2030. [ACEEE]
• The American Clean Energy and Security Act - combined with the 2007 energy bill and the Obama Administration's plan to ramp up vehicle fuel efficiency standards - will cut the use of oil by more than 5 million barrels a day in 2030. That is equivalent to all the oil we currently import from the Middle East and Venezuela and one-fourth of our nation's current total daily consumption - and will save consumers more than $135 billion in fuel costs.

Lower Costs/Saving Money:

• Transitioning off foreign oil will have minimal impact on average households at just 22 to 30 cents per day - less than a postage stamp - or $80 to $111 per year. [EPA]
• The average American household saw their energy costs for electricity and gasoline rise $1,100 under the Bush-Cheney plan, between 2001 to 2007.
• Low-income families would actually receive a $40 net benefit from the legislation in 2020. [CBO]
• A Republican requested analysis shows the average annual cost of the legislation would be approximately $175 per household in 2020 - not including energy efficiency savings of approximately over $4,000 per household by 2030. [CBO; ACEEE]
• The American Reinvestment and Recovery Act is estimated to save households up to $98 per year in energy costs.

COMPETING IN A GLOBAL ECONOMY:

America should be leading the world in clean energy; instead we're falling behind in the race for jobs and technology that will drive global markets for generations.

• China is spending six times more on clean energy in their economic stimulus bill (as a percentage of their economy) than we are: $12.6 million every hour.
• We rank below Spain, Denmark, and Portugal in the use of wind power.
• The Germans control nearly half of the global photovoltaic market, and Europe deployed 13 times more solar photovoltaic power than the United States last year.
• Only six of the top 30 wind, solar, and advanced battery technologies are American.

Efficiency: Energy Savings & Reduced Pollution

• The energy efficiency provisions in H.R. 2454 could reduce U.S. energy use by about 5 percent in 2020 - saving more than the annual energy use of 47 of the 50 states, including New York State - and that will grow to 12 percent in 2030.
• The efficiency savings alone will reduce projected carbon pollution in 2020 by the equivalent of taking 57 million cars off the road for a year. [ACEEE]

Less Pollution/Fighting Global Warming

• The American Clean Energy and Security Act would reduce total global warming emissions 83 percent below 2005 levels by 2050.
• Heavy downpours in the last 50 years have increased 67 percent in the Northeast and 31 percent in the Midwest. Unsurprisingly, this time has been marked by record flooding in those regions. [U.S. Global Change Research Program]
• Average global temperatures could increase 11 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of the century, with greater overall increases in the United States exceeding global averages. [USGCRP]
• The growing season now starts 2 weeks earlier, impacting farming and crops in rural America. [USGCRP]
• Sea-level rise would be 3-4 feet by 2100, completely flooding places like the Everglades and Cape Canaveral. [USGCRP]