Letter from the President's Desk: Bringing the Message of Energy Efficiency to Congress

Last week seems like a whirlwind: On the heels of the president’s budget proposal, we at the Alliance hosted a slew of events to propel energy efficiency forward in the new Congress. I’ve highlighted below the many important events – from our Congressional Education Day to the Great Energy Efficiency Day seminar on Capitol Hill, with links to take you to more information, videos and/or pictures on any topic that you find of particular importance. I hope you’ll spend a couple of minutes with me reviewing the important happenings in February!

First, when President Obama proposed his FY 2012 budget on Valentine’s Day, I and energy efficiency advocates around the world had much to cheer; in fact, I was so excited about the huge investments that he is proposing to make in energy efficiency programs and incentives that I talked about it in this video on our homepage. The energy efficiency programs in the president’s budget can help to drive the economic recovery we all want to see, and can position the United States to be, once again, the dominant economic force in the global market. Unfortunately, the House of Representatives is proposing to go in exactly the opposite direction on energy efficiency investments. As I noted in a National Journal blog post, the enormous cuts that the House has proposed for energy efficiency in the current fiscal year will rob American families of savings in avoided energy costs, and could consign the United States to the “back of the pack” of economic dominance in the energy sector for decades to come. We at the Alliance will fight to stave off such draconian and imprudent budget cuts.

We are stepping up efforts to build support for energy efficiency in the current Congress. Just one day after the president proposed his budget, the Alliance hosted its 11th Congressional Education Day, which brought many of you face-to-face with members of Congress and their staff. Thank you to all the Associates who made the case for energy efficiency to your senators and representatives. We “blitzed” 20 congressional offices in just one afternoon!

I also want to thank all of you who attended the Associates Membership Meeting, where I hope you enjoyed learning about all that we accomplished last year and some of what we have planned for you with the Alliance in 2011. If you missed the meeting, you can view my power point presentation.

Congressional Education Day and the Associates Membership Meeting were just two of several Alliance events on Capitol Hill last week. On the evening of Feb. 15, we launched our year-long Build Energy Efficiency education and outreach campaign. With the backing of United Technologies Corporation, the Dow Chemical Company and the Council of the North American Insulation Manufacturers Association, the Build Energy Efficiency campaign aims to ensure that the 112th Congress achieves forward-thinking, effective, energy efficiency legislation.  If you would like to join us in this important effort, please contact Nancy Gonzalez of our policy team at ngonzalez@ase.org.

Along with the Build Energy Efficiency launch, we honored those who worked tirelessly and effectively this year to advance energy efficiency, but who have not yet been recognized, with our Unsung Heroes Award. Award recipients were: Neil Brown, Senior Professional Staff Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee; Sam Ricketts, executive director of the Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition; and Kevin Kampschroer, director of the General Services Administration’s Office of Federal High-Performance Green Buildings. (You can view photos from the event on our Flickr page.) Congratulations to our heroes!

The festivities continued Wednesday, Feb. 16, with our eighth annual Great Energy Efficiency Day (GEED). With special thanks to our GEED sponsors – Johns Manville, AT&T, LeGrande, LG, and Schneider Electric – we put on a stellar event, which featured a tremendous lineup of speakers and packed the room with 300 eager attendees. I hope you got as fired up as I did while participating in the robust discussions on energy efficiency legislation! One of my favorite moments – and there were many – was the keynote remarks from Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, who not only reiterated her commitment to push energy efficiency legislation through Congress, but also inducted the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority into the Alliance’s Energy Efficiency Hall of Fame. Sen. Shaheen presented The Hall of Fame award to NYSERDA President and CEO Francis J. Murray Jr.

While you take advantage of all that being an Alliance Associate has to offer, I urge you to join the Alliance in our efforts to ensure the 112th Congress embraces energy efficiency as the nation’s first – and most important – energy resource!

Best,