Setting the Table for Building Decarbonization

As 2013 nears its end, important work on energy efficiency policy and programs is still on going. Below are the important proceedings that NEEP is keeping an eye on. And keep an eye out in January for the release of our 2013 Regional Roundup, which will contain our summation of the biggest state policy developments and trends from this past year. Additionally, we encourage you to attend the…

Cecily McChalicher, REED Manager The REED Program Year 2011 Annual Report (released this week) extracts the underlying stories and themes from REED's prodigious pool of energy efficiency program data. If you're new to REED, you might be asking, so what does this all mean? Well, remember that trite cliché that ever so wisely advises us to compare apples to apples? That saying…

Northeast Energy Efficiency Partnerships congratulates the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for capturing the top spot in the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy’s (ACEEE) 2013 State Efficiency Scorecard for the third consecutive year. The highly-regarded report measures states on a variety of efforts that recognize energy efficiency as a least-cost resource able to meet energy needs…

I recently returned from the first-ever National Summit on Integrating Energy Efficiency and Smart Grid, where I experienced a series of Aha! moments. I’m still chewing on what I learned about how energy efficiency (EE), clean distributed generation (DG) and demand response (DR) can work together, and how this “smart grid” stuff is going to help enable it. FERC Commissioner Jon Wellinghoff…

Energy savings tips from NEEP staff. October is passing like the brisk wind that blows leaves from their heightened homes, colorful vestiges of spring and summer are littering the soon to be frozen landscape. The sun emits lower and lazier rays, forcing house lights to switch on earlier every subsequent autumn afternoon. Frigid winds force the windows closed and ramp up the heaters to full…

NEEP guest-blogger, Jim Merriam, Director of Efficiency Vermont, introduces five white papers by Efficiency Vermont staff and shares his perspective on strategies for the future of energy efficiency in Vermont. Efficiency Vermont provides valuable support to NEEP and to the entire Northeast energy efficiency network. At Efficiency Vermont, we often feel stymied by the fact that energy…

by Lynn Westerlind, manager of policy and evaluation at National Grid, and Laura Schauer, a director at Tetra Tech. While preparing this article, the authors discussed personality tests. We found that whenever we completed personality tests, the results are the same for the both of us. We are both high "E"s (extroverts). Whether at work or in our personal lives, we have both learned…

October presents the opportunity to enjoy the changing foliage, dress-up as Miley Cyrus (Disney version, please) and collect enough brick-sized candy bars to construct a fortress to house your favorite Halloween nightmares while you slip into your hard earned, sugar-induced slumbers. Exciting, indeed, but what about those of us who aren’t teenagers anymore and still want to mark October as a…

Just how much bread do people eat during a storm? The NYC subway under water, unprecedented flooding in Colorado, early season blizzards curtailing Halloween trick or treating – over the past few years we’ve all seen these images flash across our screens and many of us have been directly affected by these extreme weather events. In this new weather reality “It won’t happen to me” is no longer…

Following several exciting actions coming out of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Appliance Standards Program this spring (see our July 22 Blog), there was concern amongst stakeholders that the momentum would be short lived. Attorneys General from across the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic collectively exclaimed, “Not a chance.” A Metal Halide Lamp Fixture. Attorneys general from Maine to…