Energy Efficiency Is the Right Track for Clean Air - A new report by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) reveals how energy efficiency can be used by states, policymakers, and utilities developing compliance strategies to meet the goals of federal air regulations.

One of the major problems I see with most emissions regulations is that they are written as pounds (or tons) per day, pounds per million BTU of fuel consumed, or parts per million by volume of exhaust gas.  This is as wrong as the original approach to vehicle emissions that were in ppm rather than grams per mile.  The emissions targets should be in pounds per MWh and must consider in the case of renewables, the energy sources used to provide backup for these highly variable, non-dispatchable, and dubiously reliable power sources.  This will encourage construction of more efficient powerplants to replace older ones rather than continue them in operation, and relatively higher pounds per MWh of all pollutants and CO2.  It will also make developers and regulators examine more closely the impact of using wind or solar as expanded generation if they must also consider the environmental and efficiency impacts of the backup power sources.