By Erin Cosgrove | Wed, February 22, 2023
The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) and Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) present an unprecedented opportunity to grow efficiency and electrification across the United States. They also represent an extraordinary amount of work and coordination for our state energy offices, regulators, energy efficiency businesses, and other stakeholders. To take advantage of the full funding available, states…
By Erin Cosgrove | Mon, December 19, 2022
On November 30, 2022 the Massachusetts Commission on Clean Heat (Commission) issued its final report. The report included recommendations to implement a first-of-its-kind statewide building decarbonization clearinghouse and adopt new, innovative regulatory frameworks that accelerate the adoption of clean heat technology.
The Commission was a result of the recommendations from the state's Clean…
By Erin Cosgrove | Mon, November 21, 2022
Welcome to the newest installment of a new blog series called Turning Policy into Performance. In this series, we'll take a look at how states can implement decarbonization and climate goals with energy efficiency programs.
On October 21, 2022 the U.S. Department of Energy provided guidance for WAP recipients to include two non-energy impacts (NEI) in the cost-benefit analysis – the social cost…
By Erin Cosgrove | Wed, July 13, 2022
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) created the Clean Power Plan in 2015 to cut carbon dioxide pollution from power plants – the largest source of carbon dioxide pollution in the U.S. – by shifting how they generate energy. The Supreme Court’s recent ruling on West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), may have prevented the Clean Power Plan from going into effect, but there…
By Erin Cosgrove | Tue, May 24, 2022
Welcome to the newest installment of a new blog series called Turning Policy into Performance. In this series, we'll take a look at how states can implement decarbonization and climate goals with energy efficiency programs.
Cost-benefit analyses are an important step in evaluating energy efficiency programs because they ensure that ratepayer dollars provide benefits for customers, the utility…
By Erin Cosgrove | Thu, April 28, 2022
Vermont’s legislature is considering the first of its kind Clean Heat Standard (CHS). A Clean Heat Standard seeks to reduce and regulate emissions from natural gas, fuel oil, and propane distributors by creating a cap-and-trade mechanism. This mechanism operates similar to California’s transportation fuel cap-and-trade initiative and Colorado’s Clean Heat Standard for natural gas, but unlike both…
By Erin Cosgrove | Wed, March 23, 2022
Welcome to the newest installment of a new blog series called Turning Policy into Performance. In this series, we'll take a look at how states can implement decarbonization and climate goals with energy efficiency programs.
Achieving decarbonization goals will require a paradigm shift in energy efficiency program planning – away from short-term energy savings and towards long-term carbon savings…
By Erin Cosgrove | Fri, December 17, 2021
This past year, four states in the NEEP region released energy efficiency plans —Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire. The results ran the gamut, from progressive new approaches in Massachusetts thanks to its Climate Act, to the New Hampshire PUC’s proposal of a new plan to wind down utility energy efficiency programs. Despite this wide range of outcomes, trends emerged as states…