“Jeff Haag, owner of Diversified Energy — a company with locations in New Orleans and Baton Rouge that evaluates homes to help owners increase efficiency — said government incentive programs usually drive movement in energy efficiency.
“If you take utility program funding away, unfortunately, sadly, it dies. That’s what happened here with solar,” Haag said. “When we had great tax credits everybody was looking to add solar. We were adding energy-efficient items all across town because there was a market for it. That has diminished since the state credit went away.”
“‘There’s a lot of funding in other states that we’re not seeing,” Diversified Energy’s Haag said. “Some of our leaders’ eyes are being opened to the possibilities of the economic benefits of energy efficiency. We’re behind right now, but eventually, we’ll catch up.”
The preceding excerpt appeared in Biz New Orleans’ Down But Not Out article, published in May 2017.
