The Northeast: A Model for Collective Action in Energy Efficiency
NEEP's Executive Director responds to President Obama's call for collective action
October 23, 2009 Lexington, Mass. - Northeast Energy Efficiency Partnerships (NEEP) applauds President Obama's call for Americans to "act collectively" to pilot the global economy as the clean energy leader. Choosing the Northeast to deliver his speech, the President highlights the region's role as a national leader in advancing energy efficiency and clean energy technologies.
At such a crucial point in our country's history as now, when businesses, consumers and governments alike are searching for ways to reduce energy consumption, energy efficiency has distinguished itself as the cheapest, easiest way to achieve the government's goals of reducing our carbon emissions and dependence on fossil fuels.
Leading the nation, Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states have committed to energy efficiency as a top priority solution to economic, environmental and energy challenges. In most cases state policies call for ratepayer-funded efficiency investments to at least offset projected growth in gas and electric energy consumption, peak electric demand, and the associated carbon emissions. As states ramp up their ratepayer-funded efficiency programs to $2.0 billion per year (for starters), the recent influx of federal Recovery Act funding has moved the potential for expanded efficiency initiatives to an unprecedented level. Strategic collaboration and coordination of new and existing efficiency programs will help make the most of these resources to meet aggressive energy efficiency goals. Fortunately, the Northeast/Mid-Altantic region is a model for energy efficiency success including strategic regional coordination facilitated by organizations such as Northeast Energy Efficiency Partnerships (NEEP).
Leading examples of regional collaboration and coordination in the Northeast/Mid-Atlantic region include:
• The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) through which ten states agreed to a cap and trade program for carbon emissions from power plants. The participating states created a regional market to sell carbon allowances - the proceeds of which are used by each state to expand energy efficiency and clean energy policies and programs.
• NEEP's regional Evaluation, Measurement and Verification (EM&V) Forum involves public utilty and environmental regulators representing eleven states, working together to develop and use common methods and assumptions to estimate the energy, economic and environmental impacts of state energy efficiency policies and programs. The EM&V Forum, the first of its kind in the country, is leading the way in discussions at the North American Energy Standards Board to develop such protocols nationally.
• The newly launched Designlights Consortium Qualified Products List, a regional project that helps promote solid state lighting technologies, is gaining national attention among rate-payer efficiency programs as well as manufacturers.
• NEEP's Model Progressive Building Energy Code Policy helps states adopt and implement consistent updates to state building energy codes relating to energy efficiency. Since its release in April, nearly all states in the Northeast, as well as Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C. have adopted a stretch code for raising building energy codes.
• The High Performance Public Buildings Project at NEEP works with states, communities, and education boards to provide technical guidance (including the soon-to-be released Northeast CHPS criteria 2.0), training resources and case studies to design and construct publicly-funded buildings using leading edge, advanced efficiency designs and technologies.
All of these regional projecs facilitate learning and knowledge transfer that help make the Northeast/Mid-Atlantic region a model for energy efficiency as a first priority energy resource. It also encourages and supports the technology and business innovation that President Obama called for in his talk at MIT. Through such regional collaboration, we can answer the President's call to act collectively to win the global competition in clean energy and energy efficiency technology.
Sue Coakley, Executive Director As a principal founder of NEEP, Sue Coakley has served as Executive Director and a member of the Board of Directors since 1996. The focus of her work at NEEP is the development of regional strategies to increase energy efficiency in homes, buildings and industry.
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ABOUT NEEP
Northeast Energy Efficiency Partnerships (NEEP) is a regional nonprofit organization founded in 1996 whose mission is to promote the efficient use of energy in homes, buildings and industry in the Northeast U.S. through regionally coordinated programs and policies that increase the use of energy efficient products, services and practices, and that help achieve a cleaner environment and a more reliable and affordable energy system. For more information, visit www.neep.org.