Oct 06 2008

California: Number One in Energy Efficiency

With new warnings about the perils of global warming emerging almost daily, most experts agree on the urgency of finding ways to use energy more efficiently in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions without slowing economic growth.

A new scorecard issued by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) gives California the top prize among all 50 states for energy efficiency, with a total score of 40.5 out of 50 points. Oregon, Connecticut and Vermont were close runners up.

The bottom-ranked state was Wyoming, with a grand total of zero points. Wyoming just barely saved North Dakota and Alabama, with 1.5 points each, from sharing the booby prize.

Califonia's leadership is no accident. The state's Energy Action Plan makes energy efficiency "the resource of first choice for meeting California's energy needs." The California Energy Commission estimates that the state's building and appliance standards alone "have saved consumers more than $56 billion in electricity and natural gas costs since 1978 and averted building 15 large power plants."

PG&E and other utilities have long had programs to help customers save money by saving energy. Since 1976, PG&E's energy efficiency programs have saved an estimated $22 billion and prevented 135 million tons of CO2 emissions. The ACEEE report gives California and Connecticut top marks for providing utilities with incentives to promote energy efficiency.

Joseph Romm, former acting assistant secretary of energy and founder of the non-profit Center for Energy and Climate Solutions, lauded California's record earlier this year in Salon magazine:

While a few states have energy-efficiency strategies, none matches what California has done. In the past three decades, electricity consumption per capita grew 60 percent in the rest of the nation, while it stayed flat in high-tech, fast-growing California. If all Americans had the same per capita electricity demand as Californians currently do, we would cut electricity consumption 40 percent. If the entire nation had California's much cleaner electric grid, we would cut total U.S. global-warming pollution by more than a quarter without raising American electric bills. And if all of America adopted the same energy-efficiency policies that California is now putting in place, the country would never have to build another polluting power plant.

How did California do it? In part, a smart California Energy Commission has promoted strong building standards and the aggressive deployment of energy-efficient technologies and strategies -- and has done so with support of both Democratic and Republican leadership over three decades. . . .

Significantly, California adopted regulations so that utility company profits are not tied to how much electricity they sell. This is called "decoupling." It also allowed utilities to take a share of any energy savings they help consumers and businesses achieve. The bottom line is that California utilities can make money when their customers save money. That puts energy-efficiency investments on the same competitive playing field as generation from new power plants.

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