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May 2014

Energy Efficiency Under Attack – Stalin Would be Proud?

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant 3 Comments
Last week I attended the Midwest Energy Efficiency Alliance’s (MEEA) annual meeting for its members in Chicago.  It was well worth my time and expense.  As one might guess, it featured sessions of accomplishments, organization metrics, and feedback sessions for improvement – what’s important to members.  I think many attendees would agree the premier session of the day was “Energy Efficiency Under Attack”, namely in the Midwest battleground states of Indiana and Ohio.  What an irony, as this has been the subject of a couple recent posts, The Case for Energy Efficiency – That Our Mothers Understand and Failing Energy…
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Failing Energy Efficiency- From Russia, With Love

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant 3 Comments
A couple weeks ago, you may have noticed we published The Case for Energy Efficiency – That Our Mothers Understand not entirely out of coincidence, just before Mother’s Day.  That described how to keep messaging simple so common folk can understand the benefits.  This week we feature the opposite – how not to promote energy efficiency.  The first and dominant rule is to avoid anything that has a whiff of politics.I declare myself an armchair amateur political scientist having followed and read much about politics for more than 25 years.  The political spectrum is not a straight line in my…
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Electric Utility- A CEO’s Many Bosses

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant, Utility Stuff One Comment
I’ve come to realize over the course of many years that the electric utility business is fascinatingly challenging.  No other industry that I can think of has more bosses than an electric utility.  In fact, high ranking utility people promoted from Executive Vice President to President/CEO leave a job with one boss and accept a job with dozens of bosses. A utility must take orders from Washington.  Recently, the Supremes overturned a lower court ruling that effectively said, Michigan, you don’t have to listen to New Jersey to set limits on your emissions.  Now Mr. CEO, you do.The utility pleas…
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The Case for Energy Efficiency – That Our Mothers Understand

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant, Utility Stuff 11 Comments
If energy efficiency programs are considered and measured to be a good thing in some states, why are they not good for all, or nearly all, states?  Even the utilities we work with in Minnesota and Iowa with programs since the mid 1980s believe in energy efficiency for their customers and their employing utilities.  I get the same vibe from California utilities, for another example.  However, like national elections, all eyes are presently on Ohio – a battleground state for energy efficiency. But this rant is about what happened in Indiana and how to combat it in Ohio.  In case…
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