Alliance to Save Energy

History

Republican Senator Charles Percy and Democratic Senator, former Vice President, and presidential nominee Hubert Humphrey founded the ASE in 1977. In the same year, U.S. President Jimmy Carter also established the Department of Energy. Since its founding, the ASE has been a bipartisan endeavor. It had to face the energy crisis of the late 1970s, when the United States recognized its oil dependency and the economic importance of energy. In those years, the Iranian Revolution generated a second, severe oil crisis worldwide (the first had occurred in 1973 with the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries [OPEC] oil embargo). The crisis caused the doubling of oil prices. The Three Mile Island accident exposed the risks of nuclear energy. The ASE started its first major campaign in 1978, mounting a national television public-service advertising campaign that used Gregory Peck to promote energy conservation. The slogan of the campaign was “Don't Blow It America.” During Ronald Reagan's presidency, characterized by drastic reductions in federal efficiency activities, [Page 29]the alliance restructured its organization by initiating new research programs and pilot demonstrations that outlined innovative methods to promote energy efficiency in private markets. In the first half of the 1980s, the ASE came to the forefront in national debates on energy efficiency. In 1982, it promoted the adoption of utility demand-side management, designing the first methodology to evaluate efficiency as an energy resource for Arkansas Power and Light. Two years later, the ASE began to explore the use of energy-saving performance contracting, producing workbooks and hosting seminars on innovative, private sector financing techniques for energy-efficiency projects. The alliance also promoted legislation to allow governors to shift fuel assistance funds into energy-efficiency upgrades in low-income homes. Encouraged by then-alliance chairman Senator John Heinz, this piece of legislation devoted nearly $2.5 billion into energy-efficiency investments.

The nuclear accident at Chernobyl in 1986 renewed interest in energy saving at a time when the collapse of oil prices had given a false impression of abundance. The following year, President Reagan first vetoed, but then signed, the National Appliance Energy Conservation Act, fixing federal energy-efficiency standards for many commonly used appliances. The alliance began to arrange the energy-efficiency industry so that its voice could be heard on national energy policy issues.

...