Innovative State Policy for Energy Efficiency Creates Jobs Investments
A report, "Efficiency Works: Creating Good Jobs and New Markets Through Energy Efficiency," co-authored by the Center for American Progress and Energy Resource Management, or EnergyRM, outlines the top-ranking states for policy leadership on energy efficiency.
These leading states support innovative businesses using clean energy as a tool for economic development, job creation, and capital investment. They are:
1. Connecticut
2. California
3 Maryland
4. Massachusetts
5. Pennsylvania
6. New York
7. Texas
8. North Carolina
9. New Jersey
10. Ohio
The analysis responds to the challenge of financing clean energy programs to create jobs, which is the focus at the Sept. 7 National Clean Energy Summit, which will be hosted by the Center for American Progress Action Fund, Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas in Las Vegas.
Reid said, “The road to a clean energy economy will be built with smart policies to attract private investment in the development of clean energy and energy efficiency. The Recovery Act planted critical seeds for our clean energy economy, but what we need now is to continue smart policies that help private investment to take over, and make these early seeds blossom into tens of thousands of jobs and a much more secure economy.”
“The United States should treat energy efficiency as a resource just like new power generation,” said Bill Campbell, report co-author and EnergyRM chair. “If we invest in smarter buildings as a source of clean energy—by reducing demand on our energy grid—we get the same benefit as building new power plants, but we also create substantially more jobs and share the benefits of that investment more broadly across the economy.”