Can the U.S. Kick Its Carbon Habit?

In his landmark agreement with China to address climate change, President Barack Obama has set an ambitious target for the United States to reduce its carbon emissions by 26 to 28% from 2005 levels by 2025.

At the United Nations Climate Summit in September, President Obama claimed that the United States is on track to achieve his pledge of a 17% reduction in carbon emissions by 2020. Yet these gains have been purely circumstantial, rather than through any concerted effort to address climate change.

The U.S. shale gas boom resulted in a fuel shift for power plants from carbon-intensive coal to less costly natural gas, while the economic recession resulted in lower industrial output and less carbon emissions.

A cornerstone of the Obama administrations climate policy to achieve this 2025 target is its Clean Power Plan to regulate carbon emissions from the nations power plants, which account for 32% of U.S. carbon emissions.

Its success may lie in the hands of Americas homeowners. With natural gas and fuel oil included in the energy mix, heating, cooling and powering homes is 22% of total U.S. energy consumption and 20% of CO2 emissions.

Under the Clean Power Plan, power plants that run on fossil fuels will have four options to reduce their carbon emissions. Three of these require costly investments in supply-side infrastructure: improving fuel efficiency, converting to lower-emission fuel sources (such as from coal to natural gas), or shifting to renewable energy sources or nuclear power.

The fourth, more cost-effective approach is to reduce demand for electricity. Power plants would provide consumers with incentives to invest in energy-efficiency improvements that save them money.

The potential for energy savings is substantial. Home performance contractors across the country are able to achieve energy savings of 30 to 55% on heating and cooling for homeowners just by installing insulation in attics, basements and crawlspaces, reducing air leakage, sealing ductwork and upgrading old HVAC equipment.

This retooling alone could achieve a significant portion of the 2025 carbon emissions target. It would also create jobs: Every thousand homes that complete a home efficiency retrofit each month across America puts to work about 600 contractors and energy auditors.

Is this demand-driven approach to make Americas homes energy-efficient achievable?

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Can the U.S. Kick Its Carbon Habit?