Senior associate Ken Colburn highlights the benefits and the steps for developing an Integrated Multi-pollutant Planning approach for energy and air quality management (IMPEAQ) in this presentation at the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy’s Energy Efficiency as a Resource conference. By blending the concepts of Integrated Resource Planning (IRP)—identifying the lowest-cost way to meet energy reliability needs—with the State Implementation Planning (SIP) processes, which look for measures to ensure that air quality standards are met, IMPEAQ creates a forward-looking process that addresses externalities, societal benefits and costs, and integrates environmental, health, and economic models. IMPEAQ could lead to greater use of strategies like energy efficiency that reduce the total cost of meeting both energy reliability and air quality standards. Mr. Colburn cites experience in Maryland and the Bay Area in California as examples where integrated planning is already underway.