Here are the Best and Worst States for Energy Efficiency

A sour U.S. economy, tight state budgets, and a failure by Congress to adopt a comprehensive energy strategy have not slowed the growing momentum among U.S. states toward increased energy efficiency, according to the fifth edition of the annual ACEEE State Energy Efficiency Scorecard released today by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) during a National Press Club news conference. Available online at http://aceee.org/research-report/e115, the ACEEE Scorecard shows that the top 10 states are: Massachusetts (taking the #1 position for the first time); California (slipping from the top spot it held for the first four editions of the ACEEE Scorecard); New York State; Oregon; Vermont; Washington State; Rhode Island; Minnesota, Connecticut; and Maryland (making its first appearance in the top 10 and also one of the six most improved states in the 2011 ACEEE Scorecard).

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IT power-saving initiative could save Penn State $800,000 annually

University Park, Pa. — As electricity costs continue to skyrocket, executives around the country are searching for ways to reduce energy consumption and increase sustainability. At Penn State, a University-wide team has invested in software called BigFix to enable more efficient power management of computers. The software is part of an overarching systems management initiative that could reduce Penn State’s power bill by about $800,000 annually. While an institution’s most substantial consumption of power usually is the heating and cooling of buildings, energy consumed by office equipment can contribute significantly to an organization’s carbon footprint. According to a recent report by Global Automation System Management, out of 104 million office PCs in the United States, at least 31.2 million are left on all night. A typical 10,000-computer enterprise could save more than $165,000 per year by powering-down all of their machines every evening. Nationwide, there is the potential to save $1.72 billion and nearly 15 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually in the U.S.

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