Advanced Energy Perspectives

Pennsylvania’s landmark energy efficiency law – known as Act 129 – continues to deliver huge electricity savings for the Commonwealth’s residents and businesses. In its most recent report on Act 129, the Public Utility Commission’s (PUC) Statewide Evaluator found that residential, commercial, and industrial consumers saved $2.2 billion in the last three years alone. So why the repeated – and so far failed – attempts to jam through legislation that would cripple the Keystone State’s energy efficiency efforts?

After nearly two full years debating its energy future, on Nov. 10, the Michigan Senate decisively voted in favor of Senate Bills 437 and 438, energy legislation that requires utilities to produce 15% of their electricity from renewable sources by 2021. Approved with strong bipartisan support, Michigan’s new renewable portfolio standard (RPS) will replace the state’s existing requirement of 10%, which was reached by 2015, as required. Retaining and expanding the state’s RPS, which will now be coupled with a utility Integrated Resource Planning process, is a major victory for Michigan’s advanced energy industry, given that earlier versions of the bills would have eliminated the state’s RPS altogether. Same with the state’s Energy Optimization Standard, which also had been on the chopping block but now will be preserved, under a new name.