New ‘Cash for Appliances’ Program should be ‘Cash for Water Clunkers’

The U.S. Department of Energy has announced that $300 million in funding will be made available for states to implement programs allowing consumers to turn in old, inefficient appliances for new energy-saving models. Make sure your state allocates the funding to water-using appliances – such as dishwashers and clothes washers – to take advantage of the synergic benefits of saving energy by saving water.

Following the wave of success from the federal government's recently concluded $3 billion Cash for Clunkers program, a deluge of new funding is being funneled to states so that they can provide rebates to help cash-strapped consumers purchase new, more efficient appliances.

It’s not quite the $2 billion Peter Gleick was hoping for, but it’s a good start.

According to SFGate, this program differs from the old Cash for Clunkers in some notable ways:

Unlike the $3 billion clunkers program, which required an old car to be traded in, consumers do not have to turn in an old appliance to get a rebate on a new one.

Another difference: The clunkers program was consistent nationwide, but each state can decide which appliance categories will be eligible for rebates, how energy efficient they must be, the amount of the rebates, whether they can be combined with other rebates, how the money will be tracked, and how consumers and retailers will know when it is about to run out.

States have until October 15th to apply for the program and consumers can expect to see rebates within the next few months.

This is a perfect opportunity for river and watershed groups to work with their state governments to ensure that their programs are designed to take advantage of the water-energy nexus by providing incentives for appliances that save both water and energy.

It appears that only appliances with existing EnergyStar certification can be considered for rebates. While that excludes many water-efficiency opportunities, clothes washers and dishwashers qualify for the program.

As the paper, Incorporating Energy Impacts into Water Supply and Wastewater Management explains, for a typical household, just pumping and treating water before it reaches your home requires more energy than many residential appliances use in a year. When water heating is factored in, the potential savings are even greater and water efficiency can save more energy at less cost than many traditional energy conservation programs (see CEC, 2005). Plus, there are a whole host of other energy benefits associated with saving water, such as reduced peak energy demand.

Every state applying for this program should target incentives that replace old water-using appliances with more efficient ones. In the same way that energy efficiency can save billions of dollars by avoiding the development of new energy supplies, water efficiency can save a comparable amount of money by avoiding the development of new water supplies. Why not use this opportunity to take advantage of both?