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COMMUNITY BENEFIT Affordability, Decarbonization KEYWORDS Decarbonization, Electricity, Grid Infrastructure, Remediation, Fossil fuels REGION State AFFORDABILITY STRATEGY Funding and Financing, Utility Reform: Energy Transition, Utility Reform: Cost Containment OVERSIGHT Utility Commission POLICY MECHANISM Legislation, Regulation Why This Matters Utility ratepayers are on the hook for utility investments made decades ago, whether or not those investments were […]

COMMUNITY BENEFIT Affordability, Transparency, Resilience, Public Health, Environment, Decarbonization, Energy Reliability KEYWORDS Clean energy, Decarbonization, Distributed energy, Efficiency, Electricity, Resilience, Shutoffs, Utility bills, Utility rates REGION State AFFORDABILITY STRATEGY Utility Reform: Accountability OVERSIGHT Utility Commission POLICY MECHANISM Legislation, Regulation, Executive Why This Matters Investor-owned utilities have traditionally been regulated based on a “cost-of-service” model in

COMMUNITY BENEFIT Affordability, Decarbonization KEYWORDS Clean energy, Electricity, Grid infrastructure REGION Federal, Regional, State AFFORDABILITY STRATEGY Utility Reform: Cost Containment, Utility Reform: Energy Transition OVERSIGHT FERC, Regional Transmission Operators, Utility Commissions, Energy Agencies POLICY MECHANISM Legislation, Regulation, Executive, Litigation Why This Matters Electricity transmission infrastructure plays a central role in the electric grid, connecting utility-scale

COMMUNITY BENEFIT Affordability, Decarbonization, Energy reliability, Environment, Public health, Resilience KEYWORDS Clean energy, Distributed energy, Resilience REGION State, utility AFFORDABILITY STRATEGY Residential Decarbonization, Utility Reform: Energy Transition OVERSIGHT Utility Commission POLICY MECHANISM Regulation, Legislation, Executive Why This Matters Current utility planning often fails to adequately value (or entirely omits) distributed energy resources (DERs)—such as solar

COMMUNITY BENEFIT Affordability KEYWORDS Utility Bills, Utility Rates REGION State AFFORDABILITY STRATEGY Household Protections OVERSIGHT Utility Commission POLICY MECHANISM Legislation, Regulation Why This Matters About a quarter of U.S. households face high energy cost burdens, paying more than 6% of their income towards energy bills.1 Utility bills are typically split into two components: volumetric rates

COMMUNITY BENEFIT Affordability, Decarbonization KEYWORDS Clean energy, Decarbonization, Financing REGION State AFFORDABILITY STRATEGY Funding/Financing OVERSIGHT State Treasurers, Governor POLICY MECHANISM Executive, Legislation Why This Matters Funding is sorely needed to effectuate deployment and scale up climate solutions across various aspects of the energy transition. In the absence of direct public funding, many types of investments

COMMUNITY BENEFIT Affordability, Decarbonization, Resilience KEYWORDS Clean energy, Funding, Decarbonization REGION State, Local AFFORDABILITY STRATEGY Funding/Financing OVERSIGHT Energy offices, city councils, etc. POLICY MECHANISM Legislation Why This Matters Across society, we face an urgent need to rapidly adopt efficient, clean energy resources, shift away from fossil fuels, decarbonize across all sectors, and build climate resilience.

COMMUNITY BENEFIT Affordability, Decarbonization KEYWORDS Data centers, Utility rates REGION Federal, Regional, State, Local AFFORDABILITY STRATEGY Utility Reform: Cost Containment OVERSIGHT State Agencies, Regional Transmission Operators, Public Utility Commissions, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission POLICY MECHANISM Legislation, Regulation Why This Matters The skyrocketing energy demands of data centers and other energy-intensive new loads, such as cryptocurrency

COMMUNITY BENEFIT Affordability, Transparency KEYWORDS Utility Bills, Utility Rates REGION Regional, State AFFORDABILITY STRATEGY Utility Reform: Accountability OVERSIGHT Energy Agency, Environment Agency, Regional Grid Operator, Utility Commission POLICY MECHANISM Legislation, Regulation, Executive Why This Matters One of the largest barriers to effectively addressing energy affordability challenges is a lack of publicly-accessible data about 1) the

COMMUNITY BENEFIT Affordability KEYWORDS Assistance, Utility bills REGION Federal, State, Local AFFORDABILITY STRATEGY Household Protections OVERSIGHT State social service agencies, energy offices, utility commissions POLICY MECHANISM Legislation, Regulation Why This Matters In 2020, more than one-quarter of all households and 41% of renters in the U.S. experienced energy insecurity. About one in 10 households received