Peak efficiency?

The first several years of the new millennium witnessed a sharp rise in the use of newly popular terms such as “energy independence” and “energy security.”

In the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, the war in Iraq and rising petroleum prices, energy conservation enjoyed several years as a bipartisan cause. Concerns about greenhouse gas emissions and the role of coal in particular were less bipartisan (and have differed by geographic region as well), but they likewise helped to spur new ways of thinking in the U.S.

Laws put in place in some states rewarded companies that took measurable steps to conserve energy in their plants, warehouses and offices. Recyclers—large-scale users of power for shredding, baling and other processing operations—were among those companies that took advantage of these programs.

A combination of shifting priorities, second thoughts from utility providers and successful lobbying more recently has led to a repeal of some of these programs. Their brief existence, however, further may have helped recyclers and other major energy consumers to make conservation of this resource a priority.
 

Incentives to lose

Electrical power service, even in an era of deregulation, still involves close interaction between power plant operators, transmission line owners, customers and a government regulatory authority, usually at the state level.

Not long into the maturity of the electrical power industry, some advantages of having a regulated monopoly rather than competing sets of power lines and coal-powered plants began to gain adherents.

The long-term pattern of power providers operating within a regulatory framework helped lead to the paradoxical situation of utilities rewarding customers who made investments to use less of their product (electrical power).

Energizing Indiana (https://energizingindiana.com), implemented in 2012, is one such program. During its brief tenure, industrial energy users could receive rebates for retrofit projects that effectively slashed their use of electricity.

In March 2014, the Indiana legislature passed a law, which was subsequently signed by Gov. Mike Pence, to terminate the Energizing Indiana program at the end of this year.

A March 2014 article published by Midwest Energy News (www.midwestenergynews.com) reported that several of the Hoosier State’s largest corporate citizens (some of which manufacture energy-saving technology) were not in favor of the repeal. From their points of view, not only were large companies benefitting from the energy saving incentives but so was the economy of Indiana.

Johnson Controls, Honeywell, Siemens, Ingersoll Rand and United Technologies were among the multinational companies that sent a joint letter to Pence March 7, 2014, urging him not to sign the bill repealing the Energizing Indiana program.

The companies contend that “ending this initiative would eliminate approximately 381 direct program jobs, over 1,200 indirect jobs and over $500 million of economic investment each year that the [Energizing Indiana] programs are not operating,” their executives say in the letter, posted on the Citizens Action Coalition website at www.citact.org.

At least one of the state’s utilities, NIPSCO (Northern Indiana Public Services Co.), Merrillville, Indiana, has announced that it intends to continue some aspects of the Energizing Indiana program through 2015 and possibly beyond.
 

Less efficiency required

Neighboring Ohio, like Indiana, has pared back a statewide energy efficiency incentive system. In June 2014, Ohio Gov. John Kasich signed Senate Bill 310, designed to “freeze state rules requiring electric utilities to sell more power generated by wind and solar and to help customers use less electricity,” according to the Plain Dealer newspaper of Cleveland.

The law passed in Ohio maintains the state’s program at its 2014 levels and may have more to do with allowing coal and natural gas producers to retain their market share versus discontinuing the incentives for energy savings.

Both Indiana and Ohio currently have Republican-majority legislatures and Republican governors who are repealing laws enacted when power was shared by Republicans and Democrats, and some critics on the other side of the aisle say the bills have been passed as a favor to supportive campaign contributors.

It appears that state energy savings programs, especially if they are linked to renewable energy programs, are becoming an increasingly partisan issue rather than a (rare) meeting place for bipartisan agreement.

In terms of votes cast in the marketplace, some recycling firms have proven eager to adopt renewable energy options, including collection fleets fueled by converted landfill gas (Waste Management Inc. and others) or installing a wind turbine, as is planned at the Sims Recycling Solutions material recovery facility in Brooklyn, New York.

On the political front, recyclers throughout the United States may need to keep an eye on news from their state capitals to determine whether engaging in energy savings will be its own reward or whether additional incentives will be available in the future.

The author is editor of Recycling Today magazine and can be contacted via email at btaylor@gie.net.