Michigan is most improved state for energy efficiency, report shows

[marmar]

from the Detroit Free Press:



Michigan is the most improved state in the country for energy efficiency in the past year, a group that ranks states on their progress at reducing energy said today.

Michigan jumped from 27th to 17th in the state rankings. It was 34th in 2009.

The state passed legislation in late 2008 with bipartisan support that required utilities to offer programs to save energy to residential and commercial customers, such as paying cash for old refrigerators and rebates for new air conditioning or furnaces. Those programs have been slowly ramping up, said Martin Kushler, a Michigan resident and senior fellow at the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy, the group that released today’s report.

Each year since 2008, Michigan utilities have been required to hit rising targets for energy savings, and they do it by getting their customers to use less energy. Next year, utilities are required to hit a target of saving 1% of energy sales. While those numbers may sound small, they add up. .............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.freep.com/article/20111020/NEWS06/111020033/Michigan-most-improved-state-energy-efficiency-report-shows?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|FRONTPAGE|p

[Taverner]

1. I like hearing good stories about my ancestral homeland

Now if we can just rebuild Flint, Detroit and Lansing...