Agenda

This opening session sets the stage for our conference.

This session will examine Detroit's multi-pronged approach to sustainability and highlight strategies that state and local officials can use to improve energy infrastructure, transit options, and the built environment.

This session will feature key developments and priorities that NASEO members are pursuing, including a presentation of key preliminary findings from NASEO’s 2018 Members Survey.

A balanced understanding of the implications of electrifying energy systems may help highlight pathways to achieve beneficial electrification without sacrificing the environmental or economic advantages associated with other types of fuels. This session will present the latest research findings examining the costs and benefits of electrification, with a particular focus on the buildings sector.

Located along the booming SH 130 corridor, Austin's Whisper Valley community is the blueprint for a new kind of planning. Whisper Valley is an environmentally-sensitive development dedicated to energy efficiency and cutting-edge technology. Homes built by Pacesetter Homes and Avi Homes are affordably priced, from the low $200s. Whisper Valley is a model for the future of sustainable living. From the ground up – and even far below it – everything has been thoughtfully planned to create the ideal community.

From utility consumer engagement to energy efficiency competitions, this session will examine ways states, utilities, and suppliers can enable and empower consumers to make smart energy decisions.

Energy efficiency is one of the most cost-effective ways to achieve energy, resilience, and environmental policy goals, in addition to supporting well-paying jobs in manufacturing and the trades. Proper insulation in residential, commercial, and mechanical sectors creates energy efficient systems that provide fiscal, health, and system resilience benefits that can be undervalued. This session will get the insulation industry’s perspective on how proper valuation of efficiency and the building energy code process can be used to meet state and city emission reduction goals, reduce utility ratepayer spending, as well as policy drivers related to promoting energy efficiency, job creation and worker safety in the commercial and industrial building sector.

Technology advances are enabling governments, businesses, and homes to reach higher levels of energy efficiency and productivity. Increasingly, efforts to connect building energy use and production to the grid, to different sources of generation, and to the Internet of Things are creating more opportunities than ever for intelligence and interactivity. This session will explore "what's next" for energy efficiency -- including how it will adapt to changing U.S. energy infrastructure and markets, and the policies needed to get energy efficiency to the next level.

NextEnergy works with innovators to accelerate smarter, cleaner, more accessible solutions for communities and cities. Based in the center of Detroit’s growing innovation district with access to a microgrid, smart home, electric vehicle charging infrastructure and an alternative fuels platform, NextEnergy demonstrates and pilots technologies in real-world environments to gather data and diverse user-experiences.

As the United States and India continue to forge ties on economic, environmental, and security issues, both countries offer significant opportunities for state and local policymakers and the private sector to advance innovation and technology in the energy sector. This session will examine the products, policies, and program strategies that are opening markets, promoting electrification of key industries (most notably transportation and mobility), and advancing a cleaner energy future for communities across the world.

Automakers and other transportation manufacturers are setting ambitious electric vehicle (EV) production goals for the coming years and are releasing long-range EVs in states across the country, with some estimates projecting that there will be 30 million EVs on the road globally by 2030. Despite these exciting developments, there are still significant barriers to wide-scale adoption of electric vehicles, including lack of urban and corridor infrastructure, inconsistent signage and usage standards, and a significant “education gap” among would-be EV drivers. During this session, automaker executives will share insights on their EV production and deployment strategies and will highlight key challenges that must be overcome for EVs to truly take hold.

School districts across the country are launching electric school bus pilots in an effort to decrease emissions and improve the efficiency and experience of pupil transport. These projects are expected to increase in the years ahead, as many states are expected to invest a portion of their Environmental Mitigation Trust allocation from the Volkswagen Settlement into electrified buses and transit. During this session, the Michigan Association for Pupil Transportation will share information on their Electric School Bus Pilot Project, and identify early lessons learned.

NASEO, in partnership with Cadmus Group, has developed a methodology (to be released in September 2018) for evaluating the impact of state and local policies on plug-in electric vehicle (EV) adoption across the country. The methodology and associated rubric were designed for Electrify America to use when considering potential metro areas for Cycle 2 zero-emission vehicle infrastructure investment and allows the user to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of all EV-related policies in a given metro area. During this session, NASEO and Cadmus Group will provide an overview of the methodology and how states and cities can use this tool to evaluate the effectiveness of EV policies. In addition, Electrify America will share insights on the use of this policy tool from a business perspective.

Greater integration between electric vehicles, buildings, and the grid offers opportunities for improved energy use management, communications between energy assets, energy affordability, and mobility. This dynamic discussion session will highlight policy and technology strategies to achieve these significant benefits. This session is hosted in partnership with OurEnergyPolicy.org, whose mission is to facilitate substantive, responsible dialogue on energy policy issues, and provide this dialogue as a resource for the American people, policymakers, and the media. OurEnergyPolicy.org will host a follow-up policy discussion on this topic through its online policy forum.

The nation’s energy infrastructure is increasingly interconnected and distributed.  This evolution is driven by the growing integration of information technology and additional security risks. With different policy considerations and regulatory requirements for the local distribution grid, this panel will explore how states can balance the deployment of technologies with new threats to the operation of the nation’s most critical energy infrastructure.

The Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) is home to one the largest art collections in the country. The original museum, which was founded in 1885, was relocated to its current location designed by Paul Philippe Cret in 1927. The DIA is comprised of more than 100 galleries featuring American, European, Modern and Contemporary, and Graphic art. NASEO will host its reception in the Rivera Court which is home to Mexican Artist Diego Rivera’s Detroit Industry murals.

In this session, NASEO’s Board will acknowledge the significant contributions of NASEO’s outgoing Chair, Robert Jackson of Michigan, and welcome NASEO’s incoming Chair.

As states and cities set increasingly ambitious clean energy and resiliency goals, innovative and strategic investment by the public and private sectors will be crucial drivers for success. However, developing new and innovative ways to engage private capital using public dollars is critical to ensuring that clean energy investments can access the capital they need to finance various projects. Speakers in this session will discuss their processes for developing Green Banks in their states, as well as the challenges inherent in scaling up financial products from infancy to eventual Green Bank use.

More than two million professionals compose the U.S. energy efficiency workforce. Effective training, job placement, and policy initiatives can ensure energy efficiency continues to be a job creator and driver. This session will present strategies and case studies highlighting successful initiatives, programs, and policies for energy efficiency jobs.

This session will provide an update from states with recently completed statewide energy plans and offer guidance on how states undergoing the planning process can encapsulate and plan for their rapidly changing energy markets.

This session will present an update on guidance and priorities, as well as technical assistance offerings from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Weatherization and Intergovernmental Programs, which oversees the U.S. State Energy Program and Weatherization Assistance Program.

This discussion with NASEO's General Counsel will provide the latest news on Congressional and federal agency priorities and the outlook for energy policy.

High-Performance Manufacturing: General Motors’ Detroit-Hamtramck Plant Tour (12:00 pm - 2:30 pm)
Tour the Detroit-Hamtramck Plant which is among General Motors’ (GM) most complex Manufacturing Assembly facilities in North America building four vehicles on one production line. It is GM’s only plant located in Detroit and is the epicenter of electric vehicle production producing all of GM’s extended-range electric vehicles. The plant site includes a 16.5-acre wildlife habitat conservation area, 30kW solar carport capable of simultaneously charging up to 10 electric vehicles, and the state’s largest ground-mount solar array capable of providing 10 percent of the fixed demand for the plant.

The History of American Innovation: Henry Ford Museum Tour (12:00 pm - 4:30 pm)
Tour the Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation is a national historic landmark founded by automobile industrialist Henry Ford to preserve artifacts which exemplifies the America’s spirit of creativity and innovation.