Oil Obit News: ACEEE PR/Washington, D.C.—Pacific Grove, California (August 20, 2008): The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) presented four Champion of Energy Efficiency Awards at its biennial conference, the Summer Study on Energy Efficiency in Buildings. These awards recognize leadership and accomplishment in the energy efficiency field. Winners are selected based on demonstrated excellence in program implementation, research and development, energy policy, or private sector initiatives. The winners for 2008 are:

Philips for leading the way toward replacement of conventional incandescent lamps in the U.S. market. Philips initiated efforts to set incandescent lamp efficiency standards in the U.S. and played a pivotal role in working with the rest of the lighting industry, energy efficiency advocates, and Congress to negotiate the lamp standard provision that was enacted as part of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007. This provision promises to be one of the most important energy efficiency appliance standards enacted in the past quarter century based on ACEEE’s analysis.

Dian Grueneich for outstanding career-long leadership in the energy efficiency field, and innovation in utility regulation. Ms. Grueneich played an important role as a leader in the movement for energy efficiency policies and regulations in California. For the past three years, she has served on the California Public Utilities Commission overseeing the implementation of some of the most aggressive and successful utility energy efficiency programs in the world. She has played a major role in helping to develop incentives that reward utilities for meeting energy-saving goals, pushing for good evaluation to document program savings, and advocating for strong energy efficiency efforts as part of California’s climate change action plans.

ENE (Environment Northeast) for shepherding policies that engage stakeholders, substantially increase energy efficiency investments, and institutionalize support for energy efficiency throughout New England. Environment Northeast has played a pivotal role for over a decade in advocating for energy efficiency policies and regulations in New England, including an important role in seeking the inclusion of energy efficiency in the plans for the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) agreement.

Austin Energy, Roger Duncan, General Manager, for decades of leadership in energy efficiency and sustainable energy policies and programs that serve as models for utility innovation. Over the past two decades, Austin Energy has played a leadership role in delivering efficiency and sustainable energy programs to their customers. During this time, Mr. Duncan has advocated for and overseen the implementation of these efforts, recently assuming the role of general manager. Austin Energy and Mr. Duncan have not been content to just serve their customers’ needs, but have advocated for sustainable energy policies nationally within both the public power community and in the broader utility community as well.

These winners were nominated by their peers, and selected by a committee of ACEEE’s Board of Directors from an impressive pool of more than 75 nominations. Selection criteria were based on each nominee’s impact, innovation, and leadership in the energy efficiency field.