The State Energy Efficiency Scorecard, now in its 13th edition, ranks states on their policy and program efforts. It assesses performance, documents best practices, and recognizes leadership. The reportcaptures the latest policy developments and state efforts to save energy and highlights opportunities and policy tools available to governors, state legislators, and regulators.

It was a whirlwind year for energy efficiency in 2019 at the state level. Many legislatures and governors established the transition to clean energy and reduced greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions as their top priority and increased their efficiency efforts to help achieve it. While leading states like Massachusetts, California, and New York continued to innovate and advance model programs, some of the most exciting stories emerged from states where efficiency has historically been overlooked as a resource. Nevada, New Mexico, Washington, New York, and Maine all adopted 100% clean energy goals coupled with plans to ramp up efficiency investment. In Virginia and New Jersey, utilities unveiled significant expansions of efficiency program portfolios in response to game-changing clean energy bills passed in 2018. State legislatures in Colorado, Washington, and Hawaii adopted new appliance standards in the biggest wave of state-level standard adoption in this decade. States also led the way in addressing challenges andopportunities surrounding building electrification and increasing uptake of electric vehicles as a means to achieve a low-carbon future.

POLICY AREAS

The Scorecardcompares states across six policy areas:

• Utility and public benefits programs and policies
• Transportation policies
• Building energy efficiency policies
• Combined heat and power (CHP) policies
• State government–led initiatives around energy efficiency
• Appliance and equipment standards