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EPA AND DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY LAUNCH CLEAN ENERGY PARTNERSHIP

Release Date: 10/29/1999
Contact Information: David Sternberg (215) 814-5548

David Sternberg (215) 814-5548

PHILADELPHIA - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency mid-Atlantic region and the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Philadelphia regional office today pledged to begin a new era of cooperation in promoting energy efficiency and renewable energy. The two agencies signed a memorandum of agreement today in a brief ceremony at Community College of Philadelphia. The Department of Energy also announced awarding $100,000 in grants to the City of Philadelphia for the Million Solar Roofs and Clean Cities programs.

"Today the Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency are combining efforts to give equal priority to energy efficiency and environmental protection. This joint effort helps conserve energy, prevent pollution, and use renewable energy to meet the challenges of the new millennium," said EPA Regional Administrator W. Michael McCabe, on signing the agreement.

"Today’s announcement demonstrates that energy efficiency and environmental protection activities are complimentary," said David Leiter, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy at the Department of Energy. "By working together, the DOE and EPA will provide clean energy solutions to communities throughout the region that will help save money, protect the environment and improve local livability."

The memorandum signed today establishes cooperation between the agencies to promote energy efficiency and renewable energy to improve air quality, realize sustainable economic development and prevent climate change. EPA and DOE will jointly promote the ENERGY STAR© label and buildings programs, the Clean Cities alternative fuels program, solar energy, energy efficiency in schools, energy recovery from landfills, energy efficient industrial technologies and other programs.

DOE and EPA use the ENERGY STAR© product labeling program to identify products that save energy and money while helping the environment, without compromising performance. EPA and DOE are jointly conducting an educational campaign that encourages consumers to buy ENERGY STAR© products.

The ENERGY STAR© buildings program encourages profitable energy reducing upgrades to commercial buildings. Investing in a building’s energy efficiency can provide much better rates of return than most financial investments. In the mid-Atlantic region, these investments have already saved energy costs of nearly three billion dollars and eliminated pollution from electrical generation that is equivalent to taking 150,000 cars off the road.

Clean Cities is a voluntary, locally-based, government/industry partnership, coordinated by DOE designed to expand the use of alternative fuel vehicles. By combining local decision- making with voluntary action of stakeholders, the grass-roots approach of Clean Cities departs from traditional top-down federal programs.

The primary goals of Clean Cities are:

* to increase our nation's energy security by decreasing our dependence on imported oil.
* to improve our environment by reducing harmful vehicle emissions.
* to promote national and local economic development by supporting companies involved in the domestic alternative fuels industry.

DOE’s Million Solar Roofs program is an initiative to install solar energy systems on one million U.S. buildings by the year 2010. It was announced by President Clinton on June 26, 1997 in his speech before the United Nations Session on Environment and Development. This effort includes two types of solar technology -- photovoltaics that produce electricity from sunlight and solar thermal panels that produce heat for domestic hot water, space heating, or heating swimming pools. The goals of the Million Solar Roofs program are to reduce greenhouse gas and other emissions, create high-technology jobs, and keep the U.S. solar energy industry competitive.