|
Good Morning Ladies and Gentlemen, and welcome to the sixth annual “Great Energy Efficiency Day” hosted by the Alliance to Save Energy. I am Kateri Callahan and I have the privilege and honor of serving as the President of the Alliance to Save Energy.
We have an outstanding program today, which I believe is a testament to the currency and importance of the mission of the Alliance to Save Energy which is to advance energy efficiency for the economic, energy security and environmental benefits that accrue with its use.
What an exciting moment in time it is for energy efficiency advocates!
Over the six-years that we have brought you this program, we have witnessed a sea change in the attitude and understanding of energy and energy efficiency. When we first convened this gathering in 2004, those who had been toiling in the trenches to drive energy efficiency had made only incremental progress at the federal level notwithstanding some stellar successes in a few key states. Energy efficiency was often described as the “forgotten stepchild” in the debates about national energy policy and climate.
But, as we gathered in 2004, the winds of change were upon us. As those of you with us then will recall, the Congress was considering energy legislation – EPACT 2005 -- that while heavily tilted toward driving new supplies of energy, but did take some small but important steps to deploy energy efficiency, including tax incentives and some appliance standards. Passage of that Act for me marked the beginning of what I believe will be remembered as the era of energy efficiency.
Passage of EPACT 2005 was followed by historic spikes in the price of oil, gasoline and natural gas and mounting concerns about climate change. Policy makers and the public alike began to “wake up” to the problems caused by our use of energy and to search for solutions that could lead to a sustainable energy future. The country’s collective focus – from government to businesses to consumers -- began to shift to energy efficiency, which for three decades had quietly served as America’s greatest energy resource, as the quickest, cleanest and cheapest way to meet growing energy demand and tackle climate change simultaneously.
Investment in utility and state energy efficiency programs in the U.S. has more than tripled in the years since we initiated this program, from less than $1 billion a year to nearly $4 billion in 2008. Many states have adopted energy efficiency requirements for utilities and/or new rate regimes intended to spur still greater investment in the energy efficiency resource. We are delighted today to bring you a diverse panel of experts who will discuss these efforts in detail.
In the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) in the northeast, policy makers have put forward an important model for how a cap and trade program can and should provide revenue streams to advance the use of energy efficiency and other clean energy sources.
At the end of 2007, we witnessed passage of the most sweeping energy efficiency legislation in three decades with the passage of EISA at the end of 2007 which through measures like increasing fuel economy standards and phasing out inefficient incandescent light bulbs is projected to reduce energy use by 7% and CO2 emissions by 9% by the year 2030.
But the job is far from done, and the appetite for doing more to drive energy efficiency through public policy remains huge, with perhaps the strongest advocate for energy efficiency being our new president.
President Obama has stated unequivocally and repeatedly that building a new and sustainable energy future for America is the best way to rebuild our economy. And, with the passage of the economic recovery act, the country has committed to an influx of at least $20 billion over the next two years into energy efficiency initiatives that will start us down the road to this new energy future.
Energy efficiency truly has moved from the background to center stage and with this sea change comes great opportunity, but also great responsibility.
As we begin today’s session, we find ourselves at an extremely important and exciting crossroads for energy efficiency. My hope is that the information and insights you will receive from our fantastic line-up of speakers will help each of us – in whatever role we have in the energy efficiency movement – to do our jobs better and more effectively. As I believe our speakers will confirm throughout the course of today’s discussions, the stakes could not be higher and we cannot afford to fail.
If we are truly to capitalize on the unique opportunity that has unfolded to drive energy efficiency to its fullest potential, each of us will have to “step up” our efforts – individually and collectively – to keep a pace with the changing political and economic environment.
We have an outstanding group of business and industry representatives who will explore the question of whether we truly are ready to undertake the efforts that will be necessary to fully deploy energy efficiency. We have a panel that will explore the impact of state regulatory treatment of investments in energy efficiency and how that can and will impact utility efforts to advance this resource. And, we will end the session with a panel of experts that will explore the important question of how we will measure and determine the level of our success.
It is a program that I believe will inspire and instruct, and I thank you for joining us. We have a “packed agenda”, so without further adieu, let’s begin.
|
