Emily Zimmerman's blog

This week, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency kicked off a year-long campaign to encourage cities, towns, villages, and Native American tribes to use renewable energy and fight climate change.

To participate in the "Green Power Community Challenge" a local government must join EPA's Green Power Partnership and use green power in amounts that meet the program's purchase requirements; as well as conduct a campaign to encourage local businesses and residents to collectively buy or produce green power.

Today, the House approved a bill that would allow rural public utilities and electric cooperatives to help their customers finance energy efficiency retrofits.

Under the "Rural Star" legislation, the U.S. Department of Agriculture would make zero-interest loans to rural utilities*, who would in turn make loans to qualified customers at rates not to exceed 3 percent. The loans would be repaid over 10 years via a charge on the customers' utility bills, not to exceed the anticipated monthly energy savings.

A New Study Reveals Misperceptions about How Americans Think and Act with Respect to Energy Consumption and Savings

Researchers from Columbia University, Ohio State University and Carnegie Mellon University surveyed 505 participants about what they could do to conserve energy and found a largely misguided understanding of the relative effectiveness of different energy-saving actions. Most surveyed were of the opinion that using less energy was a more effective approach to conservation than installing more efficient equipment.

Is your community one of the dozens implementing American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA) funded smart grid initiatives?

Is your utility or municipality investigating LED street and area lighting products or conducting a demonstration project or full scale retrofit? Popular before ARRA funding opportunities, many more municipalities are now pursuing the installation of LED street lights with their Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant funds.

With opportunities in the energy arena growing, competition for experienced energy efficiency or conservation staff is increasing. The good news for utility hiring managers is that at the same time, opportunities for future job candidates to be trained in the energy industry and job-seeker interest in utility careers are also growing exponentially.