Connecticut fell from fifth place to sixth place in a long-running annual ranking of states’ energy efficiency policies and programs.
As predicted, much of the reason for the decrease had to do with lawmakers in 2017 opting to raid approximately $117 million from a pot of money funded by a charge on ratepayer utility bills and intended to pay for energy efficiency programs.
The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) gave Connecticut a total of 36.5 points out of a possible 50, a drop from 38 points last year, and just enough for New York to overtake fifth place.
ACEEE had warned last year that the funding raid in Connecticut was likely to impact efficiency savings, and it did. Connecticut’s 2018 net incremental energy efficiency savings amounted to 1.37 percent of total retail sales, down from 1.62 percent the year before, costing the state a point in the ranking.
It shed another half-point based its decrease in efficiency program spending as a percentage of statewide electricity revenues (2.46 percent in the recent year vs. 3.08 percent in 2017).
The state’s new biennial budget — Gov. Ned Lamont’s first — does not raid the ratepayer funds.
Connecticut has always placed in the top 10 for the 13 years ACEEE has been producing its State Energy Efficiency Scorecard, and has been in the top five states for six of those years.
