State Outreach
The Home Performance Coalition is actively working to support growth in the home performance and weatherization industries by researching and analyzing market conditions, programs, and policies that enhance and accelerate investments in residential energy efficiency. The economic opportunity available through investments in energy efficient retrofits of U.S. buildings is enormous. For example, a March 2012 Rockefeller Foundation/Deutsche Bank Report concluded that a $279 billion investment in U.S. residential, commercial and institutional building efficiency could yield more than $1 trillion of energy savings over 10 years, create 3.3 million jobs and reduce total U.S. carbon emissions by 10%. The same Rockefeller/DB Report noted that more than half of these financial returns, jobs and carbon reductions could be realized in the U.S. residential building market.
The Home Performance Coalition works with a variety of state partners and stakeholders to simply, reform and streamline state and local regulations and outdated utility rules that present barriers to investments in residential energy efficiency. The Rockefeller/DB Report indicated that, because the U.S. residential building stock is very diverse, located in a variety of climates and subject to a confusing mix of state and local regulatory jurisdictions, current investment levels are unnecessarily low. The Home Performance Coalition works with the Building Performance Institute (BPI), Efficiency First, the Home Performance Magazine and a broad array of state and local partners to reform and streamline state and local laws, regulations and rules governing residential energy efficiency.
In addition to regulatory and legislative reforms, the Home Performance Coalition works at the state level on a variety of issues including:
- Increasing consumer awareness of energy efficiency and new technologies (such as smart grid and smart home performance management)
- Improving access to energy efficiency financing (for example, Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) programs and/or On-Bill Financing for Energy Efficiency Improvement programs)
- Improving the quantification and measurability of energy savings
- Reforming cost-effectiveness testing and screening for utilities
- Educating state leadership on the role that residential energy efficiency can play in carbon reduction strategies in compliance with Section 111(d) of the federal Clean Air Act
The Home Performance Coalition wants to hear from you about the important policy issues that are impacting the growth of residential energy efficiency investments in your state. Please contact Joe Cullen, the HPC Director of Policy and State Outreach if there is a current policy issue in your state that we should know about.