California's successes in energy efficiency have not been a seamless and unfettered process. Linking supply and demand, de-coupling, and tying profits to energy efficiency investments are all California "innovations."
The US, China, India, and the rest of the world are learning from these policy strategies.
Are they learning the right lessons? Is the "Golden Age" of energy efficiency behind or upon us?
What challenges are ahead? Thirty years ago we made a "right-hand turn," flat-lining California's per capita energy use.
Can we do it again, dramatically reducing our energy consumption to address climate change?
Will economic factors propel or destroy our momentum? And, will the nation and the world follow California’s lead?
Bio
Ralph Cavanagh
Ralph Cavanagh joined the Natural Resources Defense Council in 1979. He has been a Visiting Professor of Law at Stanford and UC Berkeley, and a Lecturer on Law at the Harvard Law School; he has also been a faculty member for the University of Idaho’s Public Utility Executives Course for more than a decade.
He received the Heinz Award for Public Policy, National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners’ Mary Kilmarx Award, Yale Law School’s Preiskel-Silverman Fellowship, Lifetime Achievement in Energy Efficiency Award from California’s Flex Your Power Campaign, Northwest Energy Coalition’s Headwaters Award, and Bonneville Power Administration’s Award for Exceptional Public Service.
Cavanagh is a graduate of Yale College and Yale Law School.
Alan Meier
Alan Meier is Associate Director and a Faculty Researcher with the EEC. He teaches core energy efficiency courses for the EEC and supervises graduate student activities.
Dr. Meier is also a Senior Scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
Michael Peevey
Michael Peevey was appointed President of the California Public Utilities Commission by Governor Gray Davis in 2002, a position he continues to hold today. From 1995 until 2000, he served as President of NewEnergy Inc. Prior to that, Mr. Peevey was President of Edison International and Southern California Edison Company, and a senior executive there beginning in 1984. He currently serves as Chairman of the Board for the California Clean Energy Fund.