FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MEDIA CONTACTS: Max Karlin, [email protected], 703-276-3255; or Jeff Benzak, 202-5136248, [email protected].
Biz Group: Energy Efficiency Huge
Economic Opportunity for Nevada
Report Shows How Efficiency Can Help Nevada Meet Clean Power Plan Standards; President’s
New Clean Energy Initiatives Include Involvement from Companies Led by E2 Members
LAS VEGAS (August 24, 2015) – As President Obama prepares to address the National Clean Energy
Summit later today at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center, a new report from the national nonpartisan
business group Environmental Entrepreneurs (E2) identifies energy efficiency as an economically
beneficial way for Nevada to meet new carbon pollution limits set by the federal Clean Power Plan,
which is the cornerstone of the president’s climate agenda.
The report – “Saving Money, Creating Jobs and Driving Economic Growth through Energy Efficiency” –
says that actions like updating building energy codes, establishing energy efficiency goals for all Nevada
electric utilities and implementing a rate structure known as “decoupling” are some of the measures
that would expand Nevada’s economy, create thousands of jobs and save billions of dollars on customer
electric bills statewide.
Increased energy efficiency complements continued deployment in Nevada of clean, renewable energy
sources like solar power, the report notes. Both renewable energy and energy efficiency reduce the
need for power plants to use polluting fossil fuel sources to generate electricity.
“Energy efficiency is the quickest, most cost-effective way for Nevada to cut its carbon emissions
while growing the economy,” said E2 chair and co-founder Nicole Lederer, who is in Las Vegas this week
for the conference and is available for on-site or phone-based interviews. “On a sunny day in Las Vegas,
it’s easy to understand why military bases like Nellis and companies like MGM want to invest in solar
energy. But what’s also important to recognize is that just like solar, using energy smarter through
energy efficiency grows small, local businesses, creates good jobs, and cuts carbon.”
Also today, President Obama announced a series of executive actions and commitments from the
private sector aimed at accelerating the transition to cleaner sources of energy and cutting energy
waste. Two of the private-sector commitments come from companies – Ohio-based Energy Optimizers,
USA and Massachusetts-based E4thefuture – that are led by E2 members.
E2 member Greg Smith is president and CEO of Energy Optimizers in Tipp City, Ohio. He made the
following statement:
“By enlisting the private sector to implement energy efficiency renovation projects in thousands of
low-income properties, President Obama’s new clean energy initiatives will help put people to work in
good jobs that can’t be outsourced,” Smith said. “At the same time, using energy smarter saves money
for building owners and tenants and reduces the carbon pollution that drives climate change.”
E2’s new Nevada report makes several policy recommendations for the state, including:

All utilities should be required to escalate annual efficiency goals.

Since it’s much cheaper to make a building efficient at the time of construction than to retrofit it
later, Nevada should update its building energy code from the 2012 version of the International
Energy Conservation Code to the 2015 version to avoid even more energy waste.

All Nevada utilities should implement a rate structure known as “decoupling.” This ensures
utilities are not hurt financially when helping their customers use less energy through efficiency
programs like weatherization or rebates for upgraded appliances, resulting in some customers
purchasing less electricity from the utility.
The report cites a statistic showing that scaling up energy efficiency to help meet Nevada’s Clean Power
Plan target could save $3.4 billion and support the creation of 4,600 jobs over the next decade. For more
information on clean energy in Nevada – including E2’s 2014 year-in-review clean energy jobs report
that ranked Nevada No. 1 in the country with more than 8,500 clean energy jobs last year – please see
www.cleanenergyworksforus.org/nevada.
“Businesses in Nevada and in every other state in the country are already hard at work building an
economy fueled by clean energy,” Lederer said. “The Clean Power Plan the president will highlight
today sends a strong, clear market signal to the private sector that now is the time to scale up energy
efficiency and renewable energy and hire thousands more Nevadans to continue to build our lowcarbon future.”
The Clean Power Plan is President Obama’s signature climate policy. Under the plan, Nevada must
reduce carbon emissions from existing power plants by about 13 percent by 2030 (compared to 2012
emissions). Nationwide, the plan cuts existing power plant carbon emissions by more than 30 percent.
“This leadership will be noticed on the international stage,” Lederer said. “When the president’s work
in Las Vegas is done and he heads to Paris in December for the biggest international climate
conference ever, America’s leadership in addressing the central environmental challenge of our time
will spur other countries to act.”
To speak with Nicole Lederer or with other E2 or NRDC experts on clean energy in Nevada, please
contact E2 press secretary Jeff Benzak at [email protected] or 202-513-6248.
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Environmental Entrepreneurs (E2) is a national, nonpartisan group of business leaders, investors, and professionals
from every sector of the economy who advocate for smart policies that are good for the economy and good for the
environment. Our members have founded or funded more than 2,500 companies, created more than 600,000 jobs,
and manage more than $100 billion in venture and private equity capital. For more information, see www.e2.org or
follow us on Twitter at @e2org.