In the past two years, the state of New York has been battered by a series of storms, including Hurricane Sandy, Hurricane Irene, and Tropical Storm Lee. Invoking the Moreland Act of 1907, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo established the Moreland Commission on Utility Storm Preparation and Response last month to investigate the effectiveness of…
RAP Senior Associate Lisa Schwartz was recently appointed by Governor John Kitzhaber as the new Director of the Oregon Department of Energy (ODOE). In her new role, Ms. Schwartz will oversee the 120-employee agency and implement the state’s new 10-Year Energy Action Plan, which aims to maximize energy efficiency, remove barriers to the development of…
John Hoffman, “father” of the Energy Star program and an instrumental force in developing and securing the Montreal Protocol, passed away on September 24th, 2012. “John was a passionate leader with insight, vision, and the determination to make a difference,” remarked David Moskovitz, RAP Principal and Co-Founder. “He succeeded because of his creative mind, his…
In a recent article published by SNL Financial, Richard Sedano, Principal and U.S. Programs Director framed the expiring federal renewable production tax credit within a larger context: He said, “I am concerned that a complex topic of public policy influencing wholesale energy prices, which [are] subject to a myriad of influences from state and federal…
In August 2011, the Regulatory Assistance Project officially joined the IEA DSM Programme as a Sponsor. The IEA DSM (Demand-Side Management) Programme is an international collaboration of countries working together to develop and promote opportunities for demand-side management.RAP’s participation is led by Richard Cowart, Programme Director for RAP-Europe, and Rick Weston, RAP’s Programme Director for…
“Richard Cowart, European programmes director of the regulatory assistance project non-governmental organisation, believes the energy savings targets proposed are achievable in Europe…”The global experience is that requiring large energy providers to help their customers save energy is good business, and good for national economies. Efficiency targets that are merely advisory rarely work.” Cowart said seven…
On 2 March 2012, RAP Senior Advisor Dr David Crossley received an Energy All-Star Award from the Australian Alliance to Save Energy for outstanding achievements in moving Australia towards a smarter, cleaner energy sector. The prestigious awards recognises those individuals who have demonstrated exemplary dedication, innovation and passion in furthering the deployment of clean energy,…
Berlin, Germany RAP Europe’s recent article published in the German Financial Times was highlighted by European parliamentarian Claude Turmes in his keynote speech in Berlin on February 29, at the annual conference of the Deutsche Unternehmensinitiative EnergieEffizienz.An English version of this article can be found here. The conference brought together key members of government, industry…
The tale of today’s energy-efficiency programs is a good news, bad news story. The bad news is that many energy-efficiency programs have suffered from the harsh state of national fiscal realities, which have resulted in government roll backs of energy-efficiency funding and some program disruption. The good news is that utility energy-efficiency programs are, for…
RAP Senior Associate Lisa Schwartz has been named to serve as the Integrated Resource Planning expert representative to the committee that guides transmission planning for the US Western Interconnection. The Western Electricity Coordinating Council (WECC) Board of Directors approved her nomination at its March meeting. Among the committee’s functions are managing WECC’s new 10- and…
