Take Action to Encourage ‘Cash for Water Clunkers’ Program

Thanks to a new federal program, states will be receiving $300 million this Fall to provide rebates for consumers interested in swapping out their old, inefficient appliances for new EnergyStar labeled models. River Network has compiled information on how much money your state will receive and how you can work with your state to ensure that these funds go toward appliances that will save both water and energy.

UPDATE: Click here for our 'official' page on the State Energy Efficient Appliance Rebate

Earlier this week I explained how the new ‘Cash for Appliances,’ or State Energy Efficient Appliance Rebate program should be turned into a ‘Cash for Water Clunkers’ program.

This idea originally stemmed from one of Peter Gleick’s blog posts where he made the following recommendation:

I urge Congress to provide $2 billion for an emergency "Cash for Water Clunkers" program for inefficient washing machines and toilets and other water-using appliances. The money should go to homeowners who replace and recycle certain truly inefficient things -- the oldest and most wasteful models -- with Energy Star and Water Sense rated models. And a comparable program should be put in place for farmers who want to replace old inefficient irrigation systems, but can't find the initial capital to do so.

Although the program isn’t targeted specifically at water per se – and is no where near the $2 billion Gleick was hoping for - it nonetheless provides a great opportunity to upgrade some major water using appliances.

Targeting clothes- and dishwashers or other water using appliances would deliver more bang for the buck since consumers would be saving money on both their water and energy bills. The program would also help municipalities reduce the amount of energy required to pump and treat water before and after it enters the home – which, for many households is comparable to the annual energy consumption of many common household appliances.

For those of you who have followed our Saving Water, Saving Energy work, I don’t need to tell you the huge potential to save water and energy through water efficiency. For those of you who didn’t realize that a whole lot of energy can be saved, read River Network’s report, The Carbon Footprint of Water where you’ll learn that if every household in America installed water efficient fixtures and appliances, we’d save at least 50 billion kilowatt hours of electricity, 240 billion cubic feet of natural gas and reduce carbon emissions by about 44 million metric tons.

Don’t take my word for it. A number of people have been expounding the potential of saving energy by saving water, including Peter Gleick (twice), Michael Webber, and Mike Reilly.

After speaking with a spokesperson at the Department of Energy, I learned that all 50 states (and 6 territories) have submitted the initial application and are eligible for the program. The incomprehensible image at the top of the page shows how much money each state is eligible to receive, which is based on population. For a readable version, download the PDF titled Appliance Rebate Program, State Allocations below to see how much your state is slated to receive.

The person I spoke with at the DOE explained to me that the design of the program is up to the discretion of each state and that state’s have until October 15 to submit their final application. Each state’s office or department of energy will be in charge of designing the programs and submitting applications.

Apparently, the easiest way to find out what your state is planning on doing is to harness the power of Google. By entering your states name followed by “appliance rebate program” into a Google search, you will likely find a press release or all the information you need in the first few hits. For instance, by searching for “Oregon appliance rebate program” I found the following:

Oregon will receive more than $3.6 million for its own program to encourage the purchase of energy-efficient appliances.

Oregon Department of Energy spokesman Lou Torres said the state will apply for the funding, but only learned of the rebate program Tuesday, so plans for administering the funds have yet to be drawn up.

"We're seeing one new program after another from the federal government right now and trying to administer the ones we've already been involved with," Torres said.

"I'm not sure how we're going to set this program up, but we'll be working really hard in the next couple of days to figure out what it all means."

What this means is that the Oregon Department of Energy hasn’t drawn up their plans for how to spend the $3.6 million they are receiving from the stimulus program and we can still influence how that money gets spent.

From now until October 15, grassroots river and watershed groups across the country should be contacting the energy offices in their states to encourage them to take advantage of this opportunity to reap the multiple benefits of saving energy by saving water. By allotting the largest rebates to dishwashers and clothes washers we can help provide jobs, reduce water demand, save energy and curb greenhouse gas emissions.