Dive Brief:
- More analysis shows Indiana's energy efficiency mandate was working – saving money and energy, and creating jobs – before the state killed off the program in exchange for allowing utilities to set their own targets.
- A new report from Good Cents, according to Midwest Energy News, found the program had saved more than 10 million MWh and had created almost 19,000 jobs.
- Last month Gov. Mike Pence (R) signed a new energy efficiency program into law, allowing utilities to set their own targets, but many believe the state's mandatory efficiency program was canceled too soon.
Dive Insight:
Evidence is mounting that when Indiana eliminated its energy efficiency program last year, the state shut down an effective program that was saving its citizens money.
Last year the state's Utility Regulatory Commission issued a report finding the defunct energy program was saving Indiana $3 for every $1 spent on residential efficiency. And now an independent company, Good Cents, has chimed in with its own analysis: Energizing Indiana had helped create some 19,000 jobs and had saved about 11 million megawatt hours.
Midwest Energy News reports that of the program's five aspects, only a low-income weatherization program was not cost-effective.
In March of last year, Indiana Gov. Pence declined to veto a controversial measure that defunded the state's efficiency program. In its place, he signed a law allowing utilities to set their own targets every three years. Supporters of the change say it will boost the state's economy and provide cheaper energy with less regulation.
The Union of Concerned Scientists found in a recent analysis that Indiana is more than halfway to compliance with the EPA's proposed carbon regulations under the Clean Power Plan, and would be in near-compliance today if it had not axed the efficiency program.
