California has topped the American Council for an Energy Efficiency Economy (ACEEE)’s state energy efficiency ranking for a fourth year in a row.

The State Energy Efficiency Scorecard ranks each region on its energy efficiency policies, programmes, transport policy, building performance codes, combined heat and power and appliance standards.

No surprise that California takes the top spot, but other states in the top five include Massachusetts, Oregon, New York and Vermont.

While many states have seen improvement, notably Arizona, Utah, New Mexico and Alaska, the bottom states of Mississippi and North Dakota have a long way to go.

But overall, the picture is getting better. State budgets for energy efficiency in 2009 were almost double those of 2007 at $4.3 billion.

In policy terms, 27 states have now or are in the process of adopting Energy Efficiency Resource Standards (EERS) that set long-term energy saving goals – a doubling since 2006.

Meanwhile, just in the last year, the number of states adopting the building energy codes for commercial and residential properties has also doubled to 20.

And the results? According to the ACEEE, electricity savings from energy efficiency programmes across all states reached 8% in 2007-2008.

energyefficiencynews.com