Energy Efficiency

This blog is the first in a series looking into the key insights of the newly released 2015 Regional Roundup of Energy Efficiency Policy in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic States.

Even the mighty black bear must take its yearly rest, arising as the winter’s snow melts away with a feeling of renewed vigor, eager to tackle the challenges of the coming spring.  

Awakening from its own brief hiatus during 2013, NEEP’s Public Buildings Leadership Group has re-cemented its footings as a driver of collaborative processes to promote public sector energy efficiency throughout the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic in 2014. 

How do you do your laundry? Generally, people do it begrudgingly, but when NEEP thinks about laundry we see an opportunity. Especially when policies for clothes dryers lag behind other household appliances, there could be potentially large energy, financial, and carbon emission savings. Coupled with the fact that about 80% American households have dryers, those individual appliances can really add up.

Thanks to Shanna Cleveland and Conservation Law Foundation (CLF) for this piece outlining three crucial points you may not be aware of surrounding the natural gas/winter peak conversation.

Last month, NEEP held its annual full day Regional Building Energy Codes Leadership Group meeting in Philadelphia at the Consortium for Building Energy Innovation (CBEI). NEEP’s Codes Leadership Group is a forum for information dissemination and exchange between building energy code stakeholders in our region, including state and municipal agencies, utilities, building officials, practitioners, and more that convenes for three webinars and one full day meeting each year.

Fort Lauderdale, Florida September 28 – October 4, 2014:  The International Code Council’s (ICC) Annual Meeting and Conference brought together over a thousand code officials from across the nation and around the world, and NEEP was there, representing the region. The conference and annual business meeting offered educational seminars, regional networking events, and strategic planning meetings.

New York has some of the region’s most aggressive energy efficiency programs, and is now in the midst of an ambitious set of initiatives aimed at “Reforming the Energy Vision.” As the state tackles complex issues of new utility models and a changing view of state, utility and market roles, NEEP is watching closely to ensure there is a continuing and prominent role for energy efficiency — the least-cost resource.

Thanks to Greg Cunningham and Conservation Law Foundation (CLF) for this cogent look at the many intricacies of Natural Gas markets and big, related pipeline question marks.

This summer, we’ve seen the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states continue tackle the major themes outlined at last month’s NEEP Summit in Newport: modernizing the electric grid, de-carbonizing the electric sector, and managing electric-gas infrastructure constraints in New England.

For quite some time, the zero net energy concept has struggled to reach beyond the domain of policy advocates and pilot projects; but the world is changing.