Utility disregard and an absence of state policy is holding back energy efficiency in the Southeastern U.S., the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy (SACE) said this week. The advocacy group released its third annual "Energy Efficiency in the Southeast" report and hosted a webinar with its policy analysts Wednesday to...

Legislators in Sacramento introduced a spate of bills this session to ban natural gas from new construction, promote hydrogen as an alternative fuel source and increase demand response to head off future blackouts. A number of bills deal with building decarbonization, including measures by Sen. Dave Cortese, a Democrat who...

Pennsylvania is considering spending some of its carbon credit proceeds on energy efficiency and renewable energy development, a state official told Infocast’s Mid-Atlantic Renewable Energy Summit last week. The state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) estimates that carbon credit auctions under the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) will yield annual...

Decarbonization advocates said last week they hope energy efficiency is one issue that will attract bipartisan support in a narrowly divided Congress in 2021. U.S. Rep. Paul Tonko (D-N.Y.) | ACEEE "Regardless of the outcome of the special [Senate] elections in Georgia, we are going to have some very narrow...

New York’s six local distribution companies split over whether to adopt "passive" or "active" approaches to managing electric vehicle charging in proposals submitted to the New York Public Service Commission last week (18-E-0138). The PSC ordered the companies on July 16 to submit proposals for managed charging programs for mass...

The California Public Utilities Commission opened a proceeding Thursday to help prevent energy emergencies next summer like those that occurred in August and September. The rulemaking is intended to identify and institute near-term measures that could limit energy consumption and boost generation during heat waves that strain the Western grid.

The NEPOOL Markets Committee passed a five-time-amended motion to update Forward Capacity Market (FCM) parameters for the 2025/26 capacity commitment period during a marathon two-day meeting. The motion won with 64% in a sector-weighted vote. Of the five amendments passed, four of them came from the Union of Concerned Scientists...

MISO agrees with nearly all the new market recommendations its Independent Market Monitor issued this year, though the grid operator said executing the ideas may take some time. The Monitor issued five new recommendations in June in the annual State of the Market report. The recommendations focus on better management...

The California Public Utilities Commission voted unanimously Thursday to enact a moratorium on a longstanding program that provides $30 million to $75 million annually to shareholders of the state’s three big investor-owned utilities for administering energy efficiency programs. The commission’s decision represented a rare disagreement with one of its own...

One demand response aggregator has asked MISO market participants not to rely on 2020 data for the 2021/22 enrollment of load-modifying resources. Voltus said the pandemic-skewed 2020 is not a proper yardstick to measure LMRs against in the 2021/22 planning year. The company said it would not be appropriate for...