WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, PG&E Chief Executive Officer Peter Darbee, Chair of Energy Resource Management Bill Campbell and Bracken Hendricks, Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress Action Fund joined to discuss a report co-authored by the Center for American Progress and Energy Resource Management, or EnergyRM, that outlines the top-ranking states for policy leadership on energy efficiency. These leading states support innovative businesses using clean energy as a tool for economic development, job creation, and capital investment.
This analysis responds to the challenge of financing clean energy programs to create jobs, which is the focus at this year’s National Clean Energy Summit, which will be hosted by the Center for American Progress Action Fund, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas on September 7 in Las Vegas, NV, Sen. Reid said, “The road to a clean energy economy will be built with smart policies to attract private investment in the development of clean energy and energy efficiency. The Recovery Act planted critical seeds for our clean energy economy, but what we need now is to continue smart policies that help private investment to take over, and make these early seeds blossom into tens of thousands of jobs and a much more secure economy.”
“The private sector depends on policy makers to provide an overarching energy policy roadmap,” said PG&E Chief Executive Officer Peter Darbee. “This roadmap allows utility companies and others to plan for the long term and make major capital investments today. State leadership has provided a critical foundation, but the federal government can provide needed leadership. Private investment and job creation will follow.”
“The United States should treat energy efficiency as a resource just like new power generation,” said co-author and Chair of EnergyRM Bill Campbell. “If we invest in smarter buildings as a source of clean energy—by reducing demand on our energy grid—we get the same benefit as building new power plants, but we also create substantially more jobs and share the benefits of that investment more broadly across the economy.”
Further describing the report’s significance, Bracken Hendricks said, “This report shows how a number of states are already hard at work using smart energy policies to jump start the market for energy efficiency jobs and new investments to make their economies more competitive. A relatively small federal investment can attract billions of dollars of private capital by incentivizing bank lending, and firms again hiring construction and manufacturing workers.”
The findings of CAP and EnergyRM’s study clearly indicate that a robust program of smart policy incentives and investments, like those advanced by Sen. Reid in the Senate, could make a big difference for businesses looking to invest in the growth of clean energy jobs.
Nevada—ranking fifth in the nation for smart energy efficiency policies—is among the states positioned to be a leader in launching this emerging performance based industry.
To see full report and state rankings, click here.
To see facts about how energy efficiency policies spur job creation and innovation in NV, click here.
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