Press Release: California will be highlighted during a live, in-person and phone-based national news conference (7 a.m. PDT on Wednesday, October 3, 2012) as one of America’s top 10 states for energy efficiency.

The major California-related announcement will be given by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) with the release of their 2012 edition of the State Energy Efficiency Scorecard.

The ACEEE ranking will cover all 50 states and the District of Columbia, but special attention will be paid to the top 10 states, the 10 states with the most need for improvement, and the seven states showing the biggest movement up the rankings. The 27 states in the spotlight are (in alphabetical order): Alaska, Arizona, California, Connecticut, Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts , Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri , Montana, Nebraska, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Vermont, Washington, West Virginia, and Wyoming.

Speakers at this California news event will include:

* ACEEE Executive Director Steve Nadel;

* Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin;

* Massachusetts Energy Undersecretary Barbara Kates-Garnick;

* ACEEE Senior Policy Analyst and State Energy Efficiency Scorecard lead author Ben Foster;

* National Association of State Energy Officials Executive Director David Terry;

* U.S. Department of Energy Deputy Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency Kathleen Hogan; and

* U.S. EPA Assistant Administrator for the Office of Air and Radiation Gina McCarthy (invited).

Among the key themes that emerged for the release of the 2012 State Energy Efficiency Scorecard are: the consistently non-partisan nature of energy efficiency at the state level, where it is widely embraced in both “red” and “blue” states; and the enthusiasm with which once low-ranked states are now seeking to improve their energy efficiency efforts.