President Obama is committed to taking responsible steps to address climate change, promote clean energy, and ensure a cleaner, more stable environment for future generations. That is why he has announced a robust set of executive actions and private sector commitments to accelerate the transition to cleaner sources of energy and cut energy waste. These actions will continue to expand opportunities to install energy saving technologies in households today, particularly those that need it most, while driving the development of low-cost clean energy technologies for tomorrow.

Last year, the United States brought online as much solar energy every three weeks as it did in all of 2008, and the solar industry added jobs 10 times faster than the rest of the economy. Since the beginning of 2010, the average cost of a solar electric system has dropped by 50 percent. In fact, distributed solar prices fell 10 to 20 percent in 2014 alone and currently 44 states have pricing structures that encourage increased penetration of distributed generation.

Americans are also more empowered to capture opportunities to improve efficiency and cut energy waste into the amount of energy they are consuming. In fact, up to one third of households can track their energy use and learn ways to make choices to how to save on their energy bills. Since President Obama took office, the U.S. Department of Energy has already put in place appliance efficiency standards that will save American consumers nearly $480 billion on their utility bills through 2030, and the Environmental Protection Agency’s ENERGY STAR Program continues to help save consumers more than $34 billion per year going forward.

The executive actions and private sector commitments President Obama is announcing will continue to promote the use and development of smart, simple, low-cost technologies to help households save on their energy bills and help America transition to a cleaner energy sources.

NASCSP is committed to a Clean Energy Future and is pleased to be part of the initiative launched today by the administration, which highlights programs by Weatherization state agencies and their partners in Connecticut, Virginia, New York, Indiana, Maryland, and New Mexico. Thank you to all the State Weatherization offices for your continued partnership for energy efficiency as we look to the future of the program and the potential to be creative and innovative in programming.