The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) has worked as an unbiased research not-for-profit promoting energy efficiency at the state, regional, and federal level for thirty years, influencing policymakers from state capitals to Capitol Hill. Over the past few years, ACEEE has increasingly worked on the state level, as a growing number of state legislatures and governors are showing interest and leadership in energy efficiency.
ACEEE established a base for further state work with the 2007 publication of the State Energy Efficiency Scorecard for 2006.1 This seminal report, now an annual effort, ranked all 50 states on a point system based on utility spending on energy efficiency programs and public benefits, energy efficiency resource standards (EERS), combined heat and power (CHP) programs, building energy codes, transportation policies, appliance and equipment efficiency standards, tax incentives, and state initiatives for research and development. The latest edition of the report, The 2009 State Energy Efficiency Scorecard2, was published in October 2009.
Using the Scorecard as a starting point, ACEEE identified a list of states on the cusp of implementing more progressive energy policies. These states became the focal point of ACEEE’s State Clean Energy Resource Project, or SCERP. The intent is to create a series of state assessments of efficiency resources (and in some cases renewable resources), and for ACEEE to serve as a center of information and expertise in order to support clean energy policies at the state level.
