Once again, the California Energy Commission has taken an important step to cut wasteful electricity use, while the rest of the country lags and segments of industry squawk.
The commission voted unanimously to require that battery chargers sold in California shut off when not in use. The targeted chargers are used for various consumer electronics such as cellphones, laptop computers, electric razors, power tools, and industrial equipment including battery-powered forklifts.
As The Bee's Rick Daysog explained last week, the rules are expected to save consumers $300 million a year, conserve enough electricity to power a city the size of Bakersfield, and remove 1 million metric tons of greenhouse gas from the air, the equivalent of taking about 75,000 cars off the road each year.
The efficiency standards would impact 170 million charging systems that are described as "vampires" because they use electricity even when they're not charging the intended device. The new rules will take effect in 2013 for chargers used on consumer goods and 2014 for chargers used on industrial equipment.
Some manufacturers complained that the rules will raise prices and damage their ability to compete. Instead of griping, they ought to seize the business opportunity by getting new energy-saving chargers to market ahead of the regulation's effective date.
California consistently has led the rest of the country by adopting energy standards for air conditioners, big appliances, lighting and most recently televisions. Some of the changes have added to costs in the short run. But energy-saving building and appliance standards have saved Californians $66 billion during the past three and a half decades, the energy commission's experts report.
Energy conservation is much less expensive than building new power plants, and it has paid off in California. California's per-capita consumption has been flat for three decades while energy demand has grown by 50 percent in the rest of the country.
Californians can take some pride knowing that the regulations related to battery chargers will in time prompt a change nationally. Of course, people can take matters into their own hands now by making a habit of unplugging chargers that are not in use.
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