Setting the Table for Building Decarbonization

Happy 2012 everyone! As we head full steam into 2012, NEEP’s Policy Team is keeping a close eye on five key policy developments that will have an impact on energy efficiency policy this year: 1. Major Energy Efficiency Polices under Attack 2012 looks to be a year in which landmark energy efficiency laws come under attack in state legislatures. In Massachusetts and Maine, for instance, their…

See WGBH's report on the home energy assessment here. It’s not always easy to take advice from your kid. And when it comes to energy efficiency, I’ve got plenty to offer. After many visits to my father’s 19th century house when I’d grouse about the drafts and bee-line for the wood stove, I finally hatched a plan to help my dad David Hildt and his wife Kate Broughton figure out how to make…

In early December we wrote this post about two resources for developing the clean energy workforce.  As a new directory for Vermont is launched today, we've updated the post to provide up to date links to these resources. As the economy continues to stumble, more states are accelerating their energy efficiency and clean energy programs to create jobs, save money and save energy. The need…

Congress and the President are set to pass a spending bill that will, among other things, defund the enforcement of the EISA light bulb standards for the 2012 fiscal year. While this means that the Department of Energy (DOE) will have no funding to enforce the standards until October 2012, the standards themselves remain in place. The details of the new provision, like the standards themselves…

Rocky Mountain Institute The Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) is a research and consulting non-profit in Colorado exploring the opportunities for increased efficiency with existing and new technologies.  The RMI recently published a report: Turbo Charging Energy Efficiency Programs, calling for utilities to dig deeper and broader for increased efficiency savings. In a blog post today on the…

For champions of the green schools movement, the U.S. Department of Education’s Green Ribbon Schools award program –now in its pilot year—is an exciting opportunity to gain national recognition for years of hard work transforming the way we design, build, and operate schools.  Thirty three states, the District of Columbia and the Bureau of Indian Education have opted into the program and…

NEEP, in collaboration with the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources (DOER), is seeking proposals for innovative methodologies that can help reduce the time and cost of data collection. Operational ratings for buildings, which are based on actual energy use (i.e. energy billing data), are great, but don’t paint the full picture of a building’s true energy performance. To help connect…

Nearly every consumer appliance and electronics program developed in the past two decades has left considerable energy savings on the table.  How do I know?  Because until this year, program administrators lacked tools to help steer consumers from appliances and electronics that were merely more efficient than standard models to those that were at the top of the efficiency peak.…

Our most recent Policy Tracker is available now, with updates on important energy efficiency policy and building energy code developments from across the Northeast. I've changed the formatting a bit, so be sure to take a look! This edition includes: State Energy Efficiency Plans: 2012 Energy Efficiency Plans Up for Consideration Building Energy Codes: Maryland Adopt 2012…

NEEP's Public Policy Manager, Natalie Hildt explains the widespread benefits to local communities and businesses from the energy efficiency measures within Massachusetts' Green Communities Act on MassHighTech's Community Voices blog. In her post, "Mass. following steady path to energy efficiency", Natalie points out that energy efficiency investments contribute to jobs growth, reduce overall…