This could spiral into job losses nationwide as CA utility actions are often duplicated by other states.

Recent action by Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) cuts funding to energy saving HVAC programs.  This will stop verified energy savings for California customers and cut thousands of green jobs in California.  PG&E, Southern California Edison (SCE) and other California Utilities are mandated by the CPUC to run energy saving programs using ratepayer funds.  Just a year ago SCE abruptly stopped their HVAC program, the same one that PG&E is suspending.  Ratepayer funds are paid directly by customers in their utility bills.  It is the responsibility of the Utilities to properly manage these funds.

The problem:  HVAC is the largest percentage of energy usage and should be the main target of any energy savings programs.  Programs are already in place to save in the HVAC category with measured energy savings, which represent at least 20 percent in heating and cooling savings.  There are several companies that service this need called Verification Service Providers (VSPs).  HVAC Contractors are the essential ingredient to interface with customers and implement these programs.  These steps will potentially decimate thousands of jobs and make it extremely difficult to implement new programs in the future, as the contractor’s training and investment in the programs will all be lost.

Questions:  Why are utilities going after the low-lying fruit with light bulbs instead of tackling the elephant in the living room, HVAC?  Is reorganization in PG&E a good reason to kill energy saving programs that have true and measured savings?  Are they being good custodians of ratepayer funds with actions like this?  Should they be returning ratepayer funds to consumers since they appear not to be able to manage them?  Why are they not funding the programs when they are sitting on the funds that can be immediately released to working programs?

Immediate news:  There are peaceful protesters wanting to talk to the media regarding PG&E causing thousands of jobs to be eliminated by not releasing ratepayer funds to contractors licensed to provide energy verifications on HVAC systems in homes and businesses.  These protesters have been in front of PG&E’s corporate headquarters and at the CPUC on January 25^thand January 26^th, 2011.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_profilepage&v=EF68lBTB4zU