WASHINGTON - According to The American Council for an
Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE), California, Connecticut, and Vermont share a
three-way tie for first place, leading the nation in energy-efficiency
policies.
ACEEE graded each state and the District of Columbia on
actions they have taken in the race to adopt energy-efficiency policies,
programs, and technologies. ACEEE recently issued its findings in a report,
“The State Energy Efficiency Scorecard for 2006.”
Past versions of the scorecard ranked states on
utility-sector energy-efficiency spending. However, this report is a new and
expanded effort to rank states on a broad array of policy initiatives,
including appliance and equipment standards, building energy codes,
transportation and land use policies, and other policy innovations “that are
increasing U.S. energy security while sustaining economic prosperity and
protecting the environment,” said ACEEE.
Massachusetts was next in line, followed by Oregon,
Washington, New York, and New Jersey. Rhode Island and Minnesota tied for
ninth.
The new report was issued as Congress takes up pending
federal energy legislation in June, which is viewed as “a crucial opportunity
to adopt energy-efficiency policies proven in these top-ranking states to help
address perhaps the preeminent public policy concern of our day,” said Maggie
Eldridge, ACEEE policy program research assistant, who co-authored the report.
“The top states earn the highest scores due to their records
of spending on energy-efficiency programs, building codes, appliances
standards, and other programs that work to increase investment in energy
efficiency,” commented Eldridge. “The next 15 states … all have policies to
increase efficiency in state-owned facilities, and most are committing funds to
energy efficiency programs, plus adopting codes and standards.
“The bottom 26 states seriously lag behind the rest,” she
said. “We hope that highlighting the leaders in our scorecard will encourage
the laggards to catch up with the frontrunners as if our lives depended on it -
because they do.”
For more information, visit www.aceee.org.
Publication date:06/25/2007
