Supporting Energy Efficiency

Dow Corning Corporation, one of the world’s leading providers of silicon-based materials that contribute to the energy efficiency of renewable energy technologies, appliances and green buildings, supports supports legislation designed to establish America as a leader in energy efficiency.

Short-Term Policies: Retrofitting Existing Buildings
The benefits of energy efficiency can be felt almost immediately by making commercial and residential buildings more energy efficient through weatherization efforts and energy efficient construction retrofits.

Weatherization
Federal funding in the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act injected the decades-old federal Weatherization Assistance Program with $5 billion in incentives for homeowners and contractors to install energy efficient home insulation and heating equipment. Within the administration’s 2011 budget, weatherization represents the largest request at $385 million, a 40 percent increase over 2009.

Dow Corning supports federal weatherization programs and the creation of the $300 million national Weatherization Assistant Grants Program, allowing low-income families to complete residential weatherization retrofits.

Construction
Existing buildings are responsible for over 40 percent of the fossil fuel consumed in the United States. The Department of Energy (DOE) has set a goal of facilitating 1 million residential retrofits and 500,000 to 1 million commercial retrofits per year by integrating advanced building technologies to reduce overall energy consumption.

National programs that are under legislative consideration such as "Home Star" and "Building Star" provide rebates and incentives for energy efficient home and commercial retrofits. According to a March 2010 analysis of the Building Star program by the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy, the Home Star and Building Star programs would begin creating jobs almost immediately, and each is projected to create as many as 150,000 jobs in some of the economy’s hardest hit sectors including construction, manufacturing, and distribution over the next two years.

Dow Corning supports energy efficiency retrofit programs and legislation, including state energy programs, designed to support innovative energy projects that meet the unique energy needs of consumers in each state.

Appliances
Appliances have an impact on business and personal lives every day, yet they use large amounts of energy, with older appliances using more than those being made today. Dow Corning supports programs that encourage the replacement of aging appliances such as DOE’s “dollars for dishwashers” program, which has distributed $300 million of federal stimulus money to states providing consumer rebates for purchase of energy-efficient appliances, should be continued and expanded, as they have an immediate impact on saving energy and costs.

Long Term Policies: Building Codes and Appliance Standards
A 2009 Booz Allen Hamilton study calculated that between 2009 and 2013, the overall green construction market is expected to generate $6 billion in energy savings.

Implementing long term policies, such as upgrading the nation’s building codes and appliance standards, will help to ensure the country’s future energy and environmental goals are met. Strengthening energy codes increases the likelihood of energy and cost savings in new construction and renovations to existing buildings. New buildings can be designed to be both more comfortable and more efficient, cutting heating and cooling costs by close to 50 percent.

Building Codes
DOE works with several national organizations of professional code-users in its Building Energy Codes Program (BECP) to develop energy codes that are universally accepted by users, implemented through education programs, and provide financial and technical assistance to help states adopt, implement, and enforce them.

Dow Corning supports the work of the BECP and the construction industry as a whole as it continues to partner with federal agencies, national code organizations, and state and local officials to improve energy efficiency by encouraging the use of new and sustainable building technologies and establishing more stringent and unambiguous building energy codes.

Appliance Standards
DOE has accelerated the pace for finalizing new appliance standards and has placed new resources and emphasis behind the enforcement of these important standards. Since 2009, DOE has issued new efficiency standards for more than 20 different products such as dishwashers, incandescent lamps and residential washing machines, which will save consumers between $250 and $300 billion on their energy bills through 2030.

Dow Corning believes standards should continue to be established in concert with industry, to ensure the research, design, and manufacturing of highly efficient appliances are continually ramped up, and in turn, jobs are created in the manufacturing and operational industries.