A Call for Controlled Experimentation in California’s Energy Efficiency Programs

Michael Giberson

UC-Berkeley economist Catherine Wolfram has an op-ed in the Sacramento Bee advocating the state use controlled experimentation to discover with energy efficiency programs work best. As she explains, retailers are increasingly using experimentation and advanced data analysis to discover how to increase sales. Surely, she suggests, when planning to spend nearly half a billion tax dollars annually on energy efficiency California ought to devote a bit of effort into separating programs that sound good and work well from those that merely sound good.

[HT to Elizabeth M. Bailey at Energy Economics Exchange.]

1 thought on “A Call for Controlled Experimentation in California’s Energy Efficiency Programs”

  1. Radical, man! What a concept. Sounds like a consulting assignment for Vernon Smith.

    Who knows? If CA actually tried this and it worked, the feds might even try it. 😉

Comments are closed.