U.S. President Barack Obama will sign a memorandum on Thursday asking the Department of Energy to set new energy efficiency standards for a broad range of appliances, from dishwashers to air conditioners, a White House official said, according to Reuters. The memo also will ask the Energy Department to develop stricter efficiency standards for other products where significant energy savings could be achieved, the official said. The department will be charged with improving the efficiency of more than 30 product categories. When the standards are fully implemented, the estimated energy savings over the next 30 years would equal the output of all current coal-fired electric generating plants in the United States for two years and save Americans more than $500 billion in electric bills. The new standards would also help cut U.S. greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global warming by the amount of emissions spewed by American power plants in more than a year. In the short term, the department would have to set rules by this August for nine appliances, including ovens, lamps, microwaves, vending machines, dishwashers, commercial boilers, and air conditioning units. The department will be directed to complete ahead of schedule those appliance standards that would give consumers the biggest energy savings.
