Back in the late '60s after everyone had been fired up by Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, the United States moved into the "stick" mode. Congress established the Environmental Protection Agency and gave it a big stick - actually several - by passing various laws. EPA has wielded the stick with great accuracy, whacking this environmental bad guy and that with the various legal sticks. More whacking would have taken place had the agency been funded with more money, but there was enough to cause pain anyway.
After the initial government agency excitement (and in some cases thrill) of hunting down bad guys, it must have occurred to someone that you can spend all your time litigating (taking people - read "industries" - to court) or you could look for voluntary cooperation on at least some environmental issues. Thus must have been born - taa daa - industry partnerships. These are voluntary programs because they have nothing to do with regulatory issues. There are no laws, for example, against wasting energy, so to get industries to save energy, you have to get voluntary cooperation.
Several EPA voluntary programs relate to the use of energy: Climate Wise, Energy Star, Green Lights, Steam Challenge and Motor Challenge. The latter two are joint EPA and Department of Energy (DOE) programs. A number of these and other programs overlap or work in conjunction with one another.
Climate Wise is an effort in which the EPA tries to help businesses find ways to conserve energy through improved efficiency so that their efforts pay off in dollars, which increases profit.
Energy Star is a program that encourages businesses and individuals to replace old inefficient equipment with newer energy-efficient models: refrigerators, washers, dryers, air conditioners, heat pumps, copy machines, home appliances - you name it.
Green Lights is a subset program of Energy Star in which businesses replace their old lights with energy efficient lights, particularly fluorescent lamps.
Steam Challenge, a joint EPA-DOE program, gives steam-generating industries ideas about how to maximize their use of steam to produce energy. For example:
Motor Challenge is another joint EPA and DOE program that tries to teach cooperating businesses how to plan for the most energy efficient motors when designing new industries or processes.
Methane Outreach focuses on reducing methane production. Methane is a gas that affects the ozone layer in the upper atmosphere. To quote the EPA page: "Methane (CH4) is a large contributor to global warming, second only to carbon dioxide in its human induced impact. Its large contribution is due in part to its potency in trapping heat in the earth's atmosphere: it is 20 to 60 times more potent than an equal amount of carbon dioxide." Cows produce methane at their tail end but nobody has a found a way of plugging this source.
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