Quick take: State public utility commissions have a long list of legal and regulatory tools to encourage energy efficiency, according to a study from Columbia Law School. But they're not using them. Scan the article below for some of the things the study says they should be doing. We wish the study would have delved further into innovative business models to allow proper recovery by utilities -- or, better yet, to go beyond mechanisms that merely true things up to ways to give utilities real incentives to push energy efficiency. And while we're wishing on a star, we might as well wish that more PUCs would take a hard look at performance-based business models, as advocated by Paul Alvarez. – Jesse Berst

In a report examining the range of legal and regulatory tools that state public utility

Noting that some states have set "impressively ambitious" energy efficiency targets, the authors conclude that "progress on energy efficiency remains uneven, and in most states, considerably more could be done." 

To help the cause, the Center's Public Utilities Commissions & Energy Efficiency: A Handbook of Legal & Regulatory Tools for Commissioners and Advocates highlights the breadth of tools PUCs have at their disposal. It also outlines policies that PUCs around the country are using to successfully promote energy efficiency. Among them:

·         Setting energy efficiency targets

·         Aligning utility incentives with energy efficiency goals

·         Financing energy efficiency

·         Resource planning

·         Demand response policies

·         Incorporating energy efficiency into state environmental policy act and siting procedures

Download the report >>

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