States pick up the slack in efficiency policy as federal government lags

Despite little action on energy efficiency at the federal level, many states forged ahead with significant policy initiatives in 2019. Among these:

· Washington, Colorado, and Hawaii adopted expanded energy and water efficiency standards, including for faucets, commercial kitchen equipment, and computers.

· Missouri approved efficiency programs that will help renters and owners of affordable multifamily housing cut costs and energy waste.

· New Jersey began implementing groundbreaking efficiency legislation to ensure its utilities invest in all cost-effective energy efficiency.

· New York adopted the nation-leading Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act setting a path to net-zero emissions (with efficiency playing a major role).

· California adopted a new framework to launch innovative market transformation ideas to get more efficient products onto store shelves, providing a boost for those improved technologies to potentially become the norm nationally.

New York City has two very large buildings dedicated to answering the 911 calls of its five boroughs. With more than 11 million emergency calls annually, it makes perfect sense. The second of these buildings, the Public Safety Answering Center II (PSAC II) is located on a nine-acre parcel of land in the Bronx. It’s an imposing 450,000 square-foot structure—a 240-foot-wide by 240-foot-tall cube. The gleaming aluminum cube risesthe equivalent of 24 stories from behind a grassy berm, projecting the unlikely impression that it might actually be floating. Like most visually striking structures, the building has drawn as much scorn as it has admiration.