Jon Maxwell, ERS, 3/2/2021. Texas regulators and energy suppliers have made some big bets in energy infrastructure over the last 25 years. They and their customers lost that bet last month. There’s a lot of finger-pointing going on. Fossil fans are blaming frozen turbines. Wind proponents are blaming natural gas infrastructure. What really happened? This … Read more
Make Energy Efficiency Programs Efficient Electric Co-op Today, May 3, 2016. Image credit: Alexas_Fotos It’s ironic: Energy efficiency saves consumers money, but it can cost electric cooperatives a bundle to run a program. That doesn’t have to be the case. A new report from NRECA’s Business and Technology Strategies unit looks at where co-ops are running up … Read more
Solving the Energy Efficiency Quandary MIT Technology Review, July 8, 2015. Image credit: PeteLinforth That debate has gotten hotter since the release, in late June, of a study by researchers at the University of Chicago and the University of California, Berkeley. Entitled Do Energy Efficiency Investments Deliver? Evidence from the Weatherization Assistance Program, the study examined … Read more
A new study claims the fiscal cost of upgrades outshine the savings by 50%. Amber Plante for Zondits, June 29, 2015. Image credit: Bullhorn Energy efficiency gives us a way to use less power, reduce costs, and still live comfortably. This principle has been at the forefront of the movement to upgrade lighting, household appliances, … Read more
A big new study looks at federal energy-efficiency efforts — and the results are grim Vox, June 23, 2015. Image credit: PeteLinforth That’s a question raised in a new working paper by Meredith Fowlie, Michael Greenstone, and Catherine Wolfram. The economists conducted a large randomized controlled trial of 30,000 homes in Michigan involving the federal Weatherization Assistance Program, which helps low-income … Read more
Although all Ohio ratepayers benefit from energy-efficient home weatherization programs for low-income families, future benefits could suffer from recent changes to state law, says a new report. Investments in those programs have been producing $2.51 in savings and other benefits for every $1 they cost, reports the study from Policy Matters Ohio.