(NewYorkTimes) WASHINGTON — The federal government will take steps to cut its energy use and reduce its heat-trapping emissions by 28 percent by 2020, compared with 2008 levels, the White House announced on Friday.
The government is the largest user of electricity and fuel in the country, accounting for roughly 1.5 percent of the nation’s annual energy consumption and emissions of the gases that contribute to global warming. The White House said the emissions reduction goal, if met, would save $8 billion to $11 billion in energy costs over the next decade.
The actions would provide only a fraction of the emissions reductions that President Obama has pledged the United States will achieve across all sectors of the economy by 2020: 17 percent below 2005 levels. But he said the federal government must lead by example.
“As the largest energy consumer in the United States, we have a responsibility to American citizens to reduce our energy use and become more efficient,” Mr. Obama said in a statement. “Our goal is to lower costs, reduce pollution and shift federal energy expenses away from oil and towards local, clean energy.”
The White House said the cumulative reduction in energy use over the next 10 years was equivalent to 205 million barrels of oil, or taking 17 million cars off the road for a year.
Federal agencies are already pursuing measures to reduce energy consumption by making buildings and vehicles more fuel efficient or switching to renewable sources of energy.
The Central Intelligence Agency, for example, opened two new high-efficiency buildings in Virginia that will consume 20 percent less energy than existing structures. The Army is installing a 500-megawatt solar plant in the Mojave Desert at its Fort Irwin training grounds. The Veterans Affairs Department has contracted for a wind turbine generation system to provide 15 percent of the electricity for its hospital in St. Cloud, Minn.
The Department of Defense, by far the federal government’s largest consumer of energy, set its emissions reduction goal at 34 percent by 2020, although that figure excludes energy consumed by combat forces.
The Institute for Energy Research, a conservative nonprofit group partly financed by the industry, criticized the program, saying the White House had not properly calculated the costs of reducing energy use or converting to renewable sources.
Nancy Sutley, chairwoman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, said many of the near-term costs of the program would be covered by the federal stimulus package. An added benefit will be the creation of thousands of new jobs, Ms. Sutley said.
