Wednesday the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy released their annual scorecard, ranking Pennsylvania 20th in the nation for energy efficiency policy and performance. The state improved by five spots from last year tying it for 4th most improved state in the country.

Much of the state’s progress can be linked to the Energy Savings Act, or Act 129, a program overseen by the Public Utility Commission that requires all Pennsylvania utilities to offer programs to customers that result in 3 percent energy savings by 2013.

A recent decision by the PUC to extend this successful initiative by three years to 2016 played a role in the new ranking, as did the utilities’ strong performance over the last two years.

“This improvement is great news for Pennsylvania’s families and businesses who are saving more money and breathing cleaner air as a result. This should inspire the PUC and the legislature to do even more to help consumers stop losing money on wasted energy and further improve our ranking,” said Tom Schuster, Pennsylvania Representative for the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign.

To date, most utilities in the state are on track to exceed that target with only West Penn Power failing to meet the interim program goals. In just the first two years of the program consumers saved $278 million each year, or $8 for every $1 invested in energy efficiency, and over 4,000 jobs were created, according to a study commissioned by PennFuture.

“Energy efficiency is the cleanest and cheapest energy resource available and it creates more jobs per unit of energy than conventional generation,” said Schuster.

Despite the recent progress on efficiency in the Commonwealth, there is much room for improvement if it wants to move up further in the rankings. Legal obstacles prevent the adoption of more energy efficient building codes, and the Energy Savings Act excludes gas conservation measures and has a cap that limits utility spending on cost-effective energy efficiency.

“For the sake of lower energy bills, economic competitiveness, job creation, and cleaner air, Pennsylvania should aspire to be a national leader in energy efficiency. We’re making progress, but still have a long way to go to modernize our building codes, allow greater investments in cost effective efficiency programs and ensure our PUC holds utilities accountable for helping families and businesses cut wasted energy and wasted dollars,” said Schuster.

10/8/2012