2009 Youth Policy Summit: Energy Efficiency in California

From August 2-6, 2009, the Alliance to Save Energy partnered with The Keystone Center and the American Petroleum Institute to organize and facilitate an Energy Efficiency Youth Policy Summit on Climate Status Investigations. The Summit convened 33 students from colleges around the nation to focus on the subject of improving energy efficiency in California. In preparation for the Summit, students spent their summer semester conducting research on energy efficiency issues and discussed potential policy solutions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions related to energy use in buildings, transportation, and utilities.

Students also met with a panel of state energy experts to come up with consensus based recommendations. Panel experts included representatives from American Petroleum Institute, Electric Power Research Institute, Pacific Gas & Electric, The Utility Reform Network, U.S. Green Building Council, California Public Utilities Commission, as well as Alliance to Save Energy Green Campus Project Manager, Renee Lafrenz. Final report recommendations will be released in October 2009, and students will present recommendations to members of the U.S. Congress, their state legislature, as well as a broad range of business and NGO sector leaders.