2008 Charles H. Percy Award for Public Service Winner: Jon Wellinghoff

Federal Energy Regulatory Commissioner Wellinghoff will receive the Charles H. Percy Award for Public Service, named for one of the Alliance’s founders, in recognition of his decades of outstanding public service and his expertise and leadership on energy efficiency as the nation confronts the dual challenge of electricity supply security and climate change. While in private practice specializing in renewable energy and distributed resources law, including energy efficiency, Wellinghoff authored the first state renewable energy portfolio standard in the country (Nevada) that also incorporated energy efficiency as a portfolio requirement for electric utilities. This law has resulted in a tripling of the energy efficiency investment by Nevada electric utilities.

While the managing principal of his own lighting efficiency consulting firm, Wellinghoff was personally responsible for millions of square feet of lighting-efficiency retrofits in numerous commercial and institutional buildings across the country. He was the primary energy attorney for the largest LEED-certified project in the nation, the MGM Mirage City Center project. He also is noted for his recognition of the importance of energy efficiency to the work of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and for leading by example by reducing lighting energy use by over 50 percent in his suite of FERC offices.

Wellinghoff, along with FERC Commissioner Suedeen Kelly, proposed and facilitated the creation of a FERC Energy Innovations Sector that implements, promotes, and manages activities in areas including energy efficiency, demand response, and distributed generation. Wellinghoff’s continued efforts at FERC have encouraged the agency to incorporate consideration of energy-saving technologies and applications into its review of wholesale energy market rules and energy infrastructure projects such as electric transmission, natural gas pipelines, compressor stations, and liquid natural gas terminals.

Wellinghoff commented, “Sen. Percy is a hero of mine for his efforts in advancing energy efficiency and his work to create the Alliance to Save Energy. I am extremely honored to be named this year’s Charles H. Percy Award winner by the Alliance and will continue to advocate the use of our ‘first and best fuel,’ energy efficiency, to reduce global warming and keep consumer energy costs down.”