Blog

By Sue Coakley |
I recently heard “move electrons instead of molecules” to describe policies to electrify buildings and transportation to displace the use of carbon-intensive fossil fuels. This clever phrase describes a key trend in ACEEE’s recently released 2020 State Energy Efficiency Scorecard – that states working to implement the most aggressive greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction goals in the nation…
By Sue Coakley |
Last week was supposed to be our 2020 NEEP Summit to address Decarbonizing Our Communities to be healthy, resilient, and affordable. We planned to meet in New Haven, Connecticut to explore pathways to accelerate building and transportation decarbonization that create opportunities and solutions for everyone. We had invited leaders from public health, affordable housing, energy efficiency,…
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By Sue Coakley |
The COVID-19 crisis has changed nearly everything. In four short months, a preventable disease has caused millions of people to suffer, many to die, and sent economies across the globe into serious recession – a truly regrettable human disaster.   Fortunately, as the extent of the crisis became clear, state and local government leaders across the Northeast United States rose to the…
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By Sue Coakley |
Retrofitting homes and buildings to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is a big but necessary task for Northeast and Mid-Atlantic States and cities committed to climate stabilization goals. While significant gains have been made in building new homes and buildings to zero energy or passive house design standards, fixing our existing building stock to minimize greenhouse gas emissions is quite…
By Sue Coakley |
The energy and carbon intensity of existing buildings has been a vexing problem for more than three decades. While lighting, appliances, and a wide variety of other technologies have significantly upgraded energy performance, the buildings that they are placed into have been remarkably resistant to major change. Direct fossil fuel use by end use and sector in New York and New England. (…
By Sue Coakley |
The US EPA’s ENERGY STAR Program, created in 1992 under the President George H. W. Bush administration, is a star performer in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic energy efficiency success story. NEEP states and efficiency programs – from the District of Columbia to Maine – rely on the ENERGY STAR label to distinguish quality and efficient lighting products, home appliances, consumer electronics, and…
By Sue Coakley |
With the arrival of the New Year, NEEP said good-bye and farewell to the DesignLights Consortium, which began 2017 as an independent organization. Led by its own Board of Directors with Tina Halfpenny as Executive Director, the DLC team of eight professionals across the U.S. continues the DLC’s key market transformation role to set the bar for and distinguish quality, energy efficient commercial…
By Sue Coakley |
With a harsh, divisive election season behind us, the voters have spoken, and change is a coming to America. But what kind of change? What will a Trump administration mean for our children, our nation and for the clean energy future that so many of our region’s state and local leaders have committed to? Like many of you, I spent the days after November 8 pondering how the election results will…

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