In advance of pending federal energy legislation, a group of nearly 60 businesses and advocates banded together to write a letter to Majority Leader Harry Reid to call for the inclusion of a strong federal Energy Efficiency Resource Standard (EERS) in any legislation that moves forward.  The cosigners included some big names who are calling on Congress to pass a strong EERS, including:  Ben & Jerry's, Best Buy, eBay, Gap, Levi Strauss & Co., Nike, Starbucks, Symantec, and The North Face. Special thanks and praise goes out to a couple of our own Minnesotan companies who also signed on to the letter: Target Corporation and Best Buy. Many thanks to Minnesota companies who are leaders on clean energy and efficiency! Fresh Energy was among the clean energy and efficiency advocates also signing on to the letter calling for Congressional action on an EERS.

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Today's release of climate and energy legislation by Senators John Kerry (D-Massachusetts) and Joe Lieberman (I-Connecticut), the American Power Act, is an important step in the right direction for putting our country on a path to a clean energy economy.

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Here at Fresh Energy I spend a lot of my time extolling - rightly so - the benefits of energy efficiency. I say a lot of things like, "The cheapest, fastest, cleanest form of energy is the stuff we don't use!" or "Energy efficiency stimulates the economy, creates jobs, and save consumers boatloads of cash every year on utility bills!" or repeating Obama's new catch phrase that "Insulation is sexy!" And yet (confession time), since purchasing my (circa 1917) home  in 2008, I hadn't yet taken the time to more closely examine the guts of my house to determine its efficiency and where I could save some cash. Why the heck not? 

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So far in 2010, some big things have happened in the area of energy efficiency. It bears repeating time and again: the cheapest and cleanest energy is the energy we don't use. Improving energy efficiency in our daily lives--meaning doing lots more with less energy--is 70 percent cheaper than generating new energy. The efficiency highlights so far in 2010...

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In a just-released study, the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) found that "if Congress passed climate and energy legislation that strengthened the energy efficiency and renewable energy standards in [the ACES bill] the House of Representatives approved last June, consumer electric and natural gas costs would be $113 billion lower by 2030, and emitters would pay 4 percent less in compliance costs." Read the entire analysis here. 

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Energy efficiency means using energy better--through innovative technologies, processes, and equipment that power our daily activities with less energy. It's about smarter systems and streamlined technology that can make the energy we need go a lot further.  Its also about economic recovery and job creation. That's what Senator Klobuchar and Cathy Zoi, Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy at the Department of Energy, had to say yesterday at a regional competitiveness and energy efficiency summit at the University of Minnesota.

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