Those efforts are analyzed regularly by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) in its State Energy Efficiency Scorecard.
“We look at dozens of different policies, at different outcomes that help people save money, save energy, reduce waste, improve their economy, create jobs,” Mark Kresowik, ACEEE senior policy director, said Tuesday during a webinar on the 2025 State Energy Efficiency Scorecard, released Tuesday and now in its 16th edition.
California, Massachusetts and New York retained their top spots on the scorecard, ranking first, second and third respectively, followed by Maryland — which tied for fourth place with Vermont. Louisiana and South Carolina each showed the most marked improvement, rising nine places.
The latter rose from 49th in the most recent 2022 scorecard to tie for 40th place in 2025. Louisiana climbed from 46th in 2022 to 37th this year, driven by an increased focus on the adoption of improved building codes. The state also set new energy efficiency targets for utilities.
“You know, in Louisiana we rank last in a lot of things,” said Jacquelyn Dadakis, CEO for Green Coast Enterprises, and chair of the Louisiana State Uniform Construction Code Council. “And we’re not actually that proud about it. It does actually rankle most of us who live here in the state, to be last in everything.”
Scorecards like this one, Dadakis said, “do light a fire under our legislators, under our public service commissioners.” She emphasized the importance of statewide building codes.
“We consider it really important that we have one, uniform statewide code … . It makes it very clear to anyone constructing in the state what the rules are in order to be in compliance,” Dadakis said during the webinar.
Colorado also made a strong showing in the latest energy efficiency scorecard, owing to the state’s commitment to working across sectors to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and improve the energy efficiency of buildings, said Mark Silberg, energy policy adviser for Colorado Gov. Jared Polis.
The state aims to see an 80 percent reduction in GHG emissions from the electric generation sector by 2030, compared to 2005 levels, and is focused on having more than 940,000 zero-emission light-duty vehicles on Colorado roadways by 2030, as a result of regulatory measures and other state policies, Silberg said during the webinar.
Colorado has also been taking a look at policy at the intersection of housing, land use and transportation, with the release of the state’s first vehicle miles traveled reduction strategy. It has a focus on multimodal transportation, transit and land-use reforms.
“It’s really thinking about how we can build a Colorado for the future where you have a choice to certainly drive, but also access to alternative modes of transportation that can reduce emissions and improve access and choice for Coloradans,” Silberg said.
Never far from a conversation around energy efficiency and electric demand is the issue of data centers and the load they will place on the nation’s electric grid.
“Load-growth is a subject we hear in every major policy conversation convening within the industry,” Kresowik said. “It’s on peoples’ minds. It’s a huge shift from low and flat load-growth over the last 15 years, due to a big push to add new demand onto the grid.”
Meta recently announced the development of a $10 billion data center to power its artificial intelligence technologies. The 4-million-square-foot facility, to be built in a rural part of northwest Louisiana, will consume large amounts of electricity and water. Meta has pledged to match its energy needs with clean renewable energy.
The development of large-scale data centers and their energy needs will, Dadakis said, undoubtedly create “some drama” in the state.
“I hope that we do fully commit to our statewide energy efficiency rules, and that we make an attempt to see if we can save energy before we build more natural gas power plants,” she said. “Unfortunately, there is a big push right now to bring on more natural gas power plants onto the grid.”
