Obama unveils energy efficiency goal in effort to find compromise

Feb 4, 2011, 0:40 GMT

Washington - President Barack Obama on Thursday unveiled a new goal to improve energy efficiency in the United States over the next decade, part of a scaled-back climate agenda that he hopes will find common ground with Republicans.

In a speech at a university in Pennsylvania, Obama laid out a plan to make commercial structures 20 per cent more energy efficient by 2020. Businesses would be encouraged to upgrade their buildings through a series of new government incentives, which Obama said would help them save 40 billion dollars per year in energy costs.

'Making our buildings more energy efficient is one of the fastest, easiest and cheapest ways to save money, combat pollution and create jobs right here in the United States of America,' Obama said.

The new efficiency goal comes as Obama's broader pledge to cut US greenhouse-gas emissions has been hampered by conservatives and some left-leaning lawmakers skeptical of the case for curbing global warming. Congress has all but abandoned Obama's call for a cap-and- trade system that would put a price on the carbon pollution of firms.

The Obama administration has said it will keep its promise made in international climate talks to cut greenhouse gas emissions 17 per cent below 2005 levels by 2020.

Obama noted that energy used by homes and buildings accounted for about 40 per cent of greenhouse-gas emissions in the United States, which is the world's second-largest polluter behind China.