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December 2020
This report from Resources for the Future reviews current policies that encourage advancements in transportation electrification and identifies the policies, technological upgrades, and infrastructure necessary to accelerate electric vehicle adoption and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Policies that incentivize the widespread installation of charging infrastructure and customers to purchase electric vehicles are reviewed at a federal, state, and local level.
July 2020
This report from Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) identifies the need for regulatory change to advance building electrification and what that change should entail. RMI provides recommendations to state utility regulators that are holistic in their decarbonization approach, take advantage of near-term market opportunities, and help manage the long-term transition to electrification.
April 2020
This report from Resources for the Future proposes an energy subscription service business model as a strategy for utilities to advance electrification while maintaining affordability for customers. The report evaluates the ways in which the energy-as-as-service (EaaS) business model can be used to effectively manage the load of electric vehicles and water heaters, and which policies are necessary to make EaaS a reality.
May 2020
This article highlights a Minnesota bill currently working its way through the legislative process. Reintroduced in 2021, the bipartisan Energy Conservation and Optimization Act is supported by the state's investor-owned utilities, allows fuel-switching, and would incentivize the sale of electric storage water heaters, air-source heat pumps, and electric vehicles.
March 2021
This report by the Greenlining Institute aims to highlight lessons learned from California's various clean transportation programs. California's robust portfolio of clean transportation programs include financial incentives for EV and charging infrastructure, EV car sharing mobility hubs, and community-driven clean mobility pilots. Over time these programs have intentionally centered equity, prioritizing the needs of low-income communities of color. This report dives into whether and how these clean energy transportation electrifications truly address equity in a comprehensive and effective way and make use of knowledge gained through the deployment of these California programs.
June 2021
This article provides an important update regarding FERC Order 2222, which would effectively prevent states from having the choice to deny demand response aggregations to bid into the wholesale market. Commissioner Mark Christie pursuaded Commissioner Richard Glick to put a pause on the Order, which will allow for additional stakeholder discussion.
July 2020
This webinar, presented by RMI, includes several speakers: Sarah Zaleski of U.S Dept. of Energy, Bill Livingood of NREL, and Cara Carmichael and Seth Coan of Rocky Mountain Institute. The speakers discuss their research on Connected Communities and how this concept is valuable in building-grid integration at the multi-building scale.
December 2021
This report published by Strategic Actions for a Just Economy (SAJE) explores the impact of building decarbonization on renters, especially those who are disadvantaged. The author considers both the benefits and challenges of building decarbonization, and identifies the high upfront cost of decarbonization as a potential heavy burden passed to renters.
June 2021
This article identifies gas powered landscaping tools as contributors to greenhouse gas emissions and takes a look at the electrification of those tools. The author highlights some of the benefits of the electrification of gas powered landscaping tools, including the alleviation of both air and noise pollution that is typically generated by their use.
October 2021
CalEnviroScreen 4.0 is a screening methodology that can be used to help identify California communities that are disproportionately burdened by multiple sources of pollution. This report details how indicators were selected and how they are used, pollution burdens, sensitive population indicators, and socioeconomic factor indicators.
September 2021
The Article makes two core claims. First, for distributional analysis to become a significant part of the regulatory landscape, it will be necessary for agencies to have detailed guidance on how to standardize the manner in which such analysis is conducted. The Article’s second core claim is conceptually more straightforward. The analysis of alternatives is a central element of regulatory impact analysis and Circular A-4 gives agencies detailed guidance on how it should be conducted. Agencies typically follow the command for cost-benefit analyses. In contrast, they have routinely ignored it, under administrations of both parties over a quarter of a century, for distributional analysis, for which it is no less relevant.13 And OIRA, which is charged with reviewing the regulatory impact analyses conducted by agencies, has never called them to task for this failure. If agencies do not analyze the distributional consequences of different regulatory alternatives, they will never be in a position to face the key issue that needs to be addressed for distributional analysis to be meaningful: when are the better distributional consequences of one alternative sufficient to overcome another alternative’s higher net benefits?
October 2021
A literature review of energy equity and energy justice metrics was performed to support efforts to develop an energy equity metrics framework. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) reviewed the available literature, surveyed work in progress on the topic, and solicited expert feedback to lay the groundwork for metrics development and provide reference material for energy equity research and development applications. This literature review identified three distinct equity metric types: target population identification, investment decision making, and program impact assessment. The following two research areas are identified as near-term needs for equity metrics: − enhancing capabilities for mapping and tracking energy inequities, and − designing methods to appropriately identify target populations by operationalizing community descriptive terminologies (for example, disadvantaged communities).
August 2021
This report outlines procedures and methodologies that the Office of Management and Budget could apply to account for equity in the regulatory review process, with a focus on environmental injustice. To better ensure that the Biden Administration’s initiatives foster meaningful and long-lasting reform, OMB should specify detailed and sustainable methodologies and procedures that agencies could implement. This report identifies four principles to guide future action on evaluating the distributional consequences of regulations.
January 2022
As part of the LADWP Rate Action approved in March 2016, the LADWP established the Equity Metrics Data Initiative (EMDI) to track, measure, and report on how its programs are provided to all customers and residents of Los Angeles. The EMDI establishes a data-driven framework that assesses how well programs, services, and resources are distributed and used throughout the city, both geographically and demographically, to see whether any disparities exist. Data collection and analysis through the EMDI will provide important information about LADWP’s services and operations, and help ensure that all customers are reached with fairness and equity.
November 2021
The purpose and high-level guidance for this report was established in the February 4, 2021, Order in Michigan Public Service Commission Case No. U-20960. The specific subject matter direction is: “a thorough exploration of how customer-owned generation and energy storage are changing the way energy customers use the grid, cost allocation, and pros and cons of various rate design options, and may include recommendations for the Commission’s consideration.”
June 2021
Illume created The Energy Equity Playbook to shed light on various equity related questions such as: How do we define equity and understand the challenge in front of us? How do we bring communities to the table? How do we effectively determine and measure who benefits from clean energy investments? How can we create policies, programs, procedures, and tariffs that benefit all?
March 2022
The U.S. Department of Energy has selected 14 communities that will receive technical assistance from the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory as part of the agency’s broader Energy Storage for Social Equity initiative (ES4SE). The initiative, launched last September, is aimed at helping underserved communities use energy storage as a way to build resilience and energy affordability. The DOE selected the 14 communities from more than 60 that applied for assistance. The effort addresses the issue of bringing some technical help to better prepare fundable projects, Mike Jacobs, a senior energy analyst with the Union of Concerned Scientists, said. “There is a bit of a history of microgrid projects that never happened – and this program, in particular, is designed to think about those [problems] and fix them before they… lead to an unfunded or unbuilt project.”
January 2020
For low-income customers, energy bills as a portion of income are three times higher than for the average customer. The shift to customer energy solutions like solar and batteries, smart homes and high-efficiency equipment is an exciting trend. But it is also expanding this equity gap because low-income customers cannot afford the capital expenses of these technologies so they cannot realize the benefits. Utilities have been running various forms of energy assistance and low-income programs for decades, but the need is outpacing the current program capacity. Utilities can optimize the impact of their programs, without massive budget increases, by using data-driven strategies for program planning, design and delivery.
January 2022
The U.S. coal industry has been in a state of decline for the past decade, a trend ushered by flat electricity demand, increased regulatory pressure, and market competition from cost-competitive clean energy sources. The receding economic viability of the coal industry has been acutely felt by the communities with immediate economic ties to coal-fired generation. With the energy transition underway, the question of how to engage communities as stakeholders in the decision-making process and address their needs through an equitable and just transition remains unresolved. To that end, this paper explores the economic, environmental, and social challenges presented by the energy transition at the community level, highlighting four case studies from transitioning coal-dependent communities across the United States to ultimately identify best practices in coal plant decommissioning processes. This paper weaves these community identified best practices into two support tools—a decommissioning checklist and a redevelopment decision-making framework—that can be used to engage communities in the power plant retirement decision, the site reclamation phase, and eventual redevelopment of the site and revitalization of the surrounding community.
