Jay Bhalla, President of Willdan Energy Solutions (aka Intergy Corporation), speaking at a forum on energy efficiency sponsored by Columbia University’s Earth Institute today.

Bhalla was the lone Californian in a panel of New Yorkers.  There were a lot of jokes about how advanced his state is in the evolution toward energy-efficiency — one panelist quipped that he thought they were installing CFL light bulbs around the time that Alexander Graham Bell was inventing the incandescent.

But Bhalla’s message was that New York City and state are at a place where we can do this right.  Of course I loved that green workforce development was part of his message.