The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) has been ranking the energy efficiency of states for the past five years and released their latest valuation Thursday. California, which has been ranked No. 1 for the last four years, has been overtaken by Massachusetts for first place. ACEEE uses a scorecard to evaluate and score six different categories: Utility and public benefits programs and policies, Transportation policies, Building energy codes, Combined heat and power, State government initiatives and Appliance and equipment efficiency standards. Massachusetts scored 45.5 points out of a possible 50, just edging California out with a score of 44 points.

Despite a sluggish economy and budget restrictions, ACEEE representatives said their report demonstrations that many states are taking the subject of energy efficiency seriously.  ACEEE Executive Director Steven Nadel said, “Energy efficiency is America’s abundant, untapped energy resource and the states continue to press forward to reap its economic and environmental benefits.” People across the country are seeing energy efficiency as being a pragmatic solution for reducing energy costs, helping the environment and creating jobs in America. Business owners have been pursuing a plethora of choices for making their facilities operate more efficiently and are reaping the benefits in their bottom line. Some businesses have been installing lighting controls, having their HVAC systems re-tuned or taking the benchmark challenge. Regardless of what avenues businesses follow, improving the energy efficiency in the places we work saves energy, controls costs and helps the environment. Make energy performance a priority and take the Energy Star challenge today.