Conserving Southern Energy

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


According to a new study, upgrading energy efficiency (new appliance standards, incentives for retrofitting and weatherization, upgrades to utility plants) in the southern US in the next 20 years could:

  • Save consumers $41 billion on their energy bills.
  • Open 380,000 new jobs.
  • Save 8.6 billion gallons of water by 2020.

The South uses more energy per capita than elsewhere in the US and every dollar invested in efficiency there over the next 20 years will reap $2.25 in benefits. Currently, the 36 percent of Americans who live in the south consume 44 percent of the nation’s energy, while supplying 48 percent of the nation’s power. Energy efficiency has lagged in the South, where low electricity rates have encouraged consumption, energy-efficient products have not penetrated the market as much as other parts of the country, and states have spent less per capita on efficiency programs than the national average.

Researchers from Duke U and the Georgia Institute of Technology modeled the interaction of nine efficiency policies for residential, commercial, and industrial energy use over 20 years in the District of Columbia and 16 southern states. They found that without improvements in energy efficiency, the South will use 15 percent more energy by 2030. But aggressive energy efficiency initiatives would:

  • Reduce overall utility bills by $41 billion a year in 2020 and $71 billion in 2030.
  • Reduce average residential electricity bills by $26 per month in 2020 and $50 per month in 2030.
  • Reduce the need for new power plants, retiring nearly 25 gigawatts of older power plants, while avoiding the construction of up to 50 gigawatts of new plants (equal to the amount of electricity produced by 100 power plants).
  • Conserve water by reducing power plant capacity, saving the South 8.6 billion gallons of fresh water in 2020 and 20.1 billion gallons in 2030.

The report Energy Efficiency in the South is open access online, including a state-by-state breakdown.

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate