Individual Innovations on a state and local scale will help bring about large scale energy efficiency

 

By Mike Smith and

Elizabeth Bush

  

At the ACEEE Market Transformation Symposium this week, featured panelists discussed opportunities to gain more tangible results for energy efficiency.  Energy Efficiency industry experts came together in Washington to push the idea that small actions generated in many local and state markets can add up and also generate some real change. 

 

Some of the most important state and local markets are, in fact, not small at all and results generated there are reflected. Kevin McCarty of the U.S. Conference of Mayors said: “The future of the economy rests with metro communities; metro markets are where the money is.”   

 

According to McCarty the combined annual output of the top 10 metro communities in 2009 was greater than 36 other states combined. The goal is to get these markets to invest in the creation of green jobs. The top five markets for these jobs are New York, Washington D.C., Houston, LA, and Boston. “These green jobs are projected to be the largest source of new jobs by 2038,” added McCarty. 

 

Exploring many different avenues to implement changes is key, stated David Terry, “There is no silver bullet to this problem; we need silver buckshot.”

 

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) is the largest investment in Energy Efficiency history.  According to the DOE’s Gil Sperly it’s about time. “Energy Efficiency is not a low lying fruit on the branch, it’s on the ground.  There is $20 laying on everyone’s floor.”

 

Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley is taking this problem head-on, stating, “The cheapest kilowatt is the one not needed.”

 

Malcolm Woolf from the Maryland Energy Administration is heading the effort to make Maryland a more efficient state. Gov. O’Malley and Woolf  beliee the EmPOWER Md. Act will afford a 15% reduction in consumption, per capita, by 2015.  “The goal is to transform every sector of Maryland,” noted Woolf.