2025 State Energy Efficiency Scorecard

The State Energy Efficiency Scorecard, now in its 16th edition, ranks states on their policy and program efforts to advance energy efficiency. Energy efficiency remains our nation’s least-cost energy resource while also delivering additional benefits such as grid reliability and resilience. In the wake of rapidly rising energy prices and electricity bills, many states are recognizing energy efficiency’s important role in keeping energy affordable by helping homeowners and businesses reduce costs, by improving living conditions, and by creating jobs, all while supporting increasingly ambitious state and local goals to reduce carbon emissions. The Scorecard assesses performance, documents best practices, and recognizes leadership. This report captures the latest policy developments and state efforts to save energy and highlights opportunities and policy tools available to governors, state legislators, and regulators.

The last two years showcased exciting trends reducing costs for businesses and households across multiple sectors, particularly for those who have been historically underserved by efficiency programs. Utility efficiency investments to help save money rebounded to a new record high of approximately $8.8 billion in 2023—an increase of approximately 17.3% compared with the recent low of 2019 and 10% more than the previous high in 2018. That was primarily driven by rising support for low-income households, as states nearly doubled their investment from 2021 to 2023 to more than $2 billion. Many states and utilities also reported efforts to grow and adapt program portfolios beyond lighting measures, targeting deep energy home retrofits, smart buildings, expansion of electric vehicle (EV) infrastructure, zero-energy buildings, and electrification of space and water heating. 

Appliance standards are similarly critical for saving households money. Existing national appliance standards saved the average U.S. household about $500 a year on utility bills in 2015, or about 16% of average annual utility bill spending (deLaski and Mauer 2017), while national standards updated during the Biden administration will save a typical U.S. household more than $100 each year on average over the next two decades (Dunklin and Mauer 2024). Eight states updated or adopted energy efficiency standards for appliances or adopted a clean lighting policy in 2023 and 2024. This is in addition to seven other states and the District of Columbia that have adopted such standards within the last five years.

In our rankings, four of the top five states overall are unchanged from the previous edition, with Massachusetts, New York, Maryland, and Vermont, respectively, joining California at the top. Maryland jumped to fourth place on the strength of the state’s transportation and buildings policies, tying with California for the highest score in that latter category. States rounding out the top 10 are Washington, Colorado, New Jersey, Oregon, and Minnesota. Each has established strong policy structures, incentives, and standards to drive savings through utility programs, efficient new construction, and improved sustainability in the transportation sector. Washington and Minnesota stand out on in the latter area with recent actions to help residents spend less on gasoline—and on time stuck in traffic—through policies to increase housing density and decrease the number of miles traveled by vehicles throughout the state.

Relative to the last edition, some of the most-improved states were Colorado, which shot up six spots and into the top 10 for the first time; New Jersey, which returned to the top 10 for the first time since 2008; and Louisiana, which had the most improvement in buildings policies, leapfrogging the state’s residential and commercial building energy codes from IECC 2009 to IECC 2021. Louisiana made that decision primarily due to facing significantly increased insurance costs as a result of extreme weather exacerbated by climate change. Improving construction not only lowers energy costs, it also helps buildings and occupants withstand extreme weather and other climate risks. Other states can follow their cost-saving examples by updating building codes and investing more in energy efficiency, particularly for low-income households