SWEEP’S 25 YEARS OF MAJOR ACCOMPLISHMENTS FOR THE SOUTHWEST
⚡ Due in large part to the advocacy efforts of the Southwest Energy Efficiency Project (SWEEP), funding for electric utility energy efficiency and demand-side management (DSM) programs in the region increased from about $21 million per year in 2001 to more than $469 million annually in 2024.
⚡ Annual energy savings from electric utility DSM programs in the region increased from 625 gigawatt-hours (GWh) in 2006 to 2,539 GWh in 2024. SWEEP has helped utilities expand the scope and impact of their efficiency programs, including increasing support for income-qualified households and historically underserved communities.
⚡ Households and businesses in the region are expected to save over $20 billion as a result of utility energy efficiency programs implemented over the past 25 years. Much of these savings would not have been realized without SWEEP’s work.
⚡ Southwestern utilities and states are implementing a number of innovative energy efficiency programs proposed by SWEEP, including programs supporting multifamily housing retrofits, advanced LED lighting, connected smart thermostats, heat pumps and heat pump water heaters, battery storage, and Strategic Energy Management.
⚡ Since SWEEP’s founding, the region has avoided the need for 13 large baseload power plants as a result of utility energy efficiency programs implemented. These programs also prevented approximately 35 million tons of carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions, while reducing other harmful pollutants.
⚡ States in the region have enacted more than 200 laws and regulatory decisions to advance energy efficiency and electrification that SWEEP proposed or influenced. These laws:
- Scaled up utility energy efficiency programs.
- Required utility investments in beneficial electrification for buildings and transportation.
- Strengthened building energy codes.
- Established minimum energy efficiency standards for appliances, light bulbs, and other products.
- Created tax incentives and grant programs to support highly efficient homes and buildings, building retrofits, and electric vehicles (EVs) and charging infrastructure.
- Established commercial building performance standards.
- Set decarbonization targets for gas utilities.
- Expanded energy efficiency assistance for income-qualified households.
- Accelerated EV deployment and charging infrastructure.
- Boosted EV benefits through optimized rates and managed charging.
- Increased funding for transit, biking, and walking.
- Encouraged more efficient land use and transit-friendly communities.
- Set energy savings goals for public buildings.
- Established new energy efficiency financing mechanisms.
- Created model electric- and solar-ready requirements for new buildings.
- Empowered utilities to plan for electrification loads and launch virtual power plant programs.
- Adopted revenue decoupling for utilities and launched gas energy efficiency programs.
- Established “Clean Heat” targets to reduce emissions from retail gas customers.
- Launched a process to identify “gas planning pilot communities” to implement and test neighborhood-scale alternative energy projects.
⚡ Bolstered by active support and ongoing defense from SWEEP, Arizona adopted some of the strongest energy efficiency requirements for investor-owned electric utilities in the nation, requiring electricity savings of 20% by 2020. Arizona’s investor-owned utilities have since surpassed this goal, and SWEEP has worked to establish successor policies to support continued energy efficiency growth.
⚡ With SWEEP’s support and input, Salt River Project adopted improved sustainability goals through 2035, including commitments to reduce carbon emissions from its generation fleet, expand energy efficiency investments, and accelerate EV deployment.
⚡ In 2021, SWEEP’s advocacy led directly to major transparency reforms in the Arizona Corporation Commission’s Integrated Resource Planning process, making Arizona just the third state to require investor-owned utilities to provide stakeholders with modeling licenses and data to evaluate alternative resource scenarios and utility portfolios.
⚡ Over the past 25 years, SWEEP has played a key role in educating policymakers on the benefits of advanced building energy codes, spurring their adoption. Nevada, along with most larger municipalities in Arizona and Colorado, adopted the 2024 International Energy Conservation Code, while Utah and New Mexico adopted the 2021 version (commercial buildings only in Utah). Homes built under the 2021 code use roughly one-third less energy than homes built under the 2006 code, while the 2024 code delivers an additional 7-8% reduction.
⚡ With SWEEP’s leadership, Colorado adopted minimum energy and water efficiency standards for 28 residential and commercial products sold in the state.
⚡ SWEEP helped persuade the state of Colorado, municipalities, and utilities across the region to support beneficial electrification in buildings, including the adoption of beneficial electrification targets for Colorado’s electric utilities.
⚡ Along with key partners, SWEEP led efforts to add EV charging requirements to residential and commercial building codes in Colorado and New Mexico, as well as in key municipalities in Nevada and Arizona, through updated building codes and local ordinances. SWEEP’s Utah partner, Utah Clean Energy (UCE), led similar efforts to expand EV-readiness policies in three local governments across Utah.
⚡ SWEEP and UCE advocated for the adoption of revenue decoupling for Questar Gas (now Enbridge Gas Utah) in 2006 and worked with the utility to launch the successful ThermWise gas energy efficiency program a year later.
⚡ SWEEP has successfully advocated to ensure that income-qualified households and historically underserved communities benefit from energy efficiency policies and investments, including:
- State funding for energy efficiency upgrades in communities with a high concentration of income-qualified households.
- Minimum funding requirements for utility programs serving income-qualified households as part of energy efficiency and beneficial electrification portfolios.
- More flexible and comprehensive utility programs for income-qualified households, including funding for health and safety improvements alongside efficiency upgrades.
- Energy efficiency programs targeted to rent-subsidized apartment buildings.
- Programs and incentives to help income-qualified households and underserved communities purchase EVs and EV charging equipment and electrify transportation in disproportionately impacted communities.
- Ongoing work to include electrification in low-income housing tax credits, including EV infrastructure requirements in Colorado’s Qualified Allocation Plan.
- Expanded requirements for energy-efficient affordable housing in Utah’s Qualified Allocation Plan, along with additional incentives for EV infrastructure and efficient electrification, developed in partnership with UCE.
- A new model for capital stacking and workforce development in disproportionately impacted communities through New Mexico’s Community Energy Efficiency Development block grant program.
- Expanded marketing and outreach by Rocky Mountain Power to improve access to utility efficiency programs for historically underserved customers.
- Passage of legislation in New Mexico, enabling the Public Regulation Commission to approve low-income utility rates and creating a pathway for targeted utility affordability programs.
- Partnerships with Tribal communities in Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, and Wyoming to support building codes that promote sovereignty, affordability, resilience, and community well-being.
⚡ Due in large part to SWEEP’s advocacy, Colorado adopted more than a dozen laws to accelerate EV deployment, enable cities and counties to invest a portion of gas tax revenues into mass transit and non-motorized transportation, and create new state enterprises supporting EVs and public transit. Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah also passed laws promoting utility investment in EV charging infrastructure, while the Arizona Corporation Commission adopted similar policies.
⚡ SWEEP played a major role in developing the REV West Memorandum of Understanding, a cooperative agreement among eight western states to invest in EV charging infrastructure along interstate highways.This helped lay the groundwork for the federal National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure program adopted under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
⚡ SWEEP supported the adoption of Advanced Clean Cars and Advanced Clean Trucks programs in Colorado, New Mexico, and Nevada, although Congress placed their enforcement on hold in 2025. If reinstated, these policies would prevent a cumulative 300 million metric tons of CO₂ pollution and drive deployment of more than five million light-duty EVs and 600,000 medium- and heavy-duty electric trucks.
⚡ SWEEP advocacy has helped unlock more than $1 billion in utility and public funding for transportation electrification programs through 2026.
⚡ SWEEP helped convince the Colorado Transportation Commission to require the state and major metropolitan areas to incorporate the state’s climate targets into transportation infrastructure planning. In just the first few years, this policy has redirected more than $1 billion toward sustainable mobility instead of roadway expansion. SWEEP also worked on several successful bills to boost the state’s funding for transit and rail by $150-200 million per year.
⚡ SWEEP supported legislation and participated in rulemaking in New Mexico to establish a Clean Transportation Fuel Standard, launched in 2026. SWEEP estimates the standard will generate about 4 cents per kWh of EV charging, driving tens of millions of dollars in new transportation electrification investment each year.
⚡ SWEEP was a founding organization of the Energy Efficiency Business Coalition, the voice of Colorado’s energy efficiency contractor community. SWEEP’s founder, Howard Geller, was instrumental in launching the coalition in 2007 and strengthening industry advocacy and workforce development.
⚡ SWEEP has played a key role in advancing building electrification in Colorado through co-leading the Beneficial Electrification League of Colorado (BEL-CO) for the past six years. BEL-CO has helped develop training programs for heat pump installers, expand homeowner education, and improve consistency across utility heat pump rebate programs. In part through these efforts, annual residential heat pump installations in Colorado increased from 1,100 in 2021 to 14,200 in 2025.
⚡ Based on SWEEP’s report, Energy efficiency and electrification practices for oil and gas production, Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association developed new programs to help oil and gas producers electrify production sites and improve energy efficiency. In recent years, Tri-State has achieved 20–25 GWh per year in energy savings through these programs, while helping reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions at production sites. Colorado and New Mexico are major oil and gas producing states, and emissions from that sector exceed those of their industrial sectors. Both states reduced oil and gas sector GHG emissions by 22% between 2015 and 2023.
⚡ Working with partners, SWEEP was instrumental in passing legislation in 2021 to set “Clean Heat” targets for Colorado’s gas utilities to reduce emissions from retail gas customers through increased energy efficiency, electrification and other measures. SWEEP also furthered gas transition efforts by advocating for a new program to identify “gas planning pilot communities” and support their voluntary implementation and testing of neighborhood-scale alternative energy projects as a way to save money and reduce pollution.
⚡ SWEEP played a leading role in developing and passing eight pieces of Colorado housing and land use legislation between 2023 and 2026 to encourage more housing development near transit, eliminate excessive parking requirements, expand affordable housing options like Accessory Dwelling Units, and remove other barriers to more climate-friendly and efficient development patterns. Our Housing Forward Colorado campaign, launched in 2025, is actively working with local governments and housing advocates to successfully implement these state laws and support local initiatives that enable infill development and curb unsustainable, costly sprawl.
