New Website Tracks Energy Laws

With state-by-state and national searches, the Advanced Energy Tracker keeps tabs on energy policy.

Search Results from AEL Tracker

A new database developed by researchers at Colorado State University, the Advanced Energy Legislation Tracker (AEL Tracker), serves as a clearinghouse for energy-policy information in all 50 U.S. States. The group’s website also provides national trend data and analysis.

To view customized lists of pending legislation, users can choose any or all states and select from ten policy categories (like energy efficiency, financing, and economic development), or search by keyword (such as “building code” or “rooftop solar”). A page for each of the more than 2,000 bills in the database shows the bill’s sponsors, lists all actions and votes that have been taken on the bill, and links to the most recent wording on the state’s website.

Co-creators of the website, Advanced Energy Economy and the Center of the New Energy Economy, also provide free trend reports analyzing the data collected in the AEL Tracker. The most recent of these, “Addressing the Upfront Cost Barrier: States Invest in Finance Policy This Session” (PDF) reveals that tax incentives predominate in most legislation but concludes that less-popular policies, such as PACE financing, “hold the greatest promise for revolutionizing our energy economy.”