Advocates Highlight Energy Efficiency As The Cheapest Energy That Boosts A Sustainable Future
By Steve Tawa
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- The Energy Coordinating Agency of Philadelphia, the non-profit which helps to preserve and stabilize low-income homes, held its annual sustainability conference at PECO Energy's Headquarters in Center City.
ECA Executive Director Liz Robinson says we're smarter these days and more aware of the benefits of clean energy.
"Americans have become intensely interested in energy again."
One of the topics centered on how Pennsylvania was complying with the Obama administration's "Clean Power Plan" to reduce carbon pollution. She says it includes incentives that could benefit low-income communities.
"It gives double credit to states that harvest energy efficiency from low-income communities."
Robinson says the cheapest way to produce clean energy is to save it.
"As many of us are fond of saying, the cleanest energy is the energy you don't use."
And she says it promotes a sustainable future.
Robinson says ECA helps folks who live in old row homes in neighborhoods that suffer from decades of deferred maintenance, by targeting more effective investments in energy efficiency. ECA also says it creates local jobs which cannot be outsourced.