Awesome news on the energy front, courtesy of Earth2Tech, Rep. Henry Waxman, and President Obama.The most important provision in the stimulus package for promoting energy efficiency in the U.S. could be a piece of ambiguous language wrapped up in a section on state energy grants. A few sentences encourages states to consider a policy for utilities known as decoupling (though the stimulus text doesn’t name it specifically) in return for energy grants. Decoupling, a strategy that has proven successful at promoting energy efficiency in states like California, disconnects utilities’ sales from their profits, and thus encourages utilities to implement energy efficiency programs...So, could Dominion Power be faced with decoupling despite all its efforts to continue "business as usual" for the indefinite future? Let's hope so.
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...While the language in the provision is open to interpretation and is just starting to be studied, Joe Fagan an attorney for the law firm Pillsbury, says that “decoupling is clearly the intent.” Fagan says the language is as strong as it could possibly be given the federal government doesn’t have authority to regulate state utilities’ prices and cost recovery.
By the way, when I was out in California last week at Stanford, I caught a couple hours of this conference on "innovations in energy efficiency." From the looks of it, California is moving ahead rapidly on smart metering and other schemes to encourage energy efficiency, reduce people's energy bills, and slash carbon emissions. In contrast, Virginia's moving at a snail's pace. That needs to change.
h/t
