HOW DO I USE THE ENERGY AFFORDABILITY POLICY LIBRARY?

The Energy Affordability Policy Library is designed to help climate justice advocates, organizers, and policy staff to learn more about a wide range of policies that can be enacted at the state or local level to ensure households can access clean, reliable, affordable energy. The library builds on Just Solutions’ report Pathways for Action: Affording Our Clean Energy Future with a deep dive on dozens of policy concepts—from direct relief to rate payers to addressing fundamental drivers of energy unaffordability. 

Each entry provides details on model policy features, potential challenges or pitfalls when designing such a policy, complementary policies, and examples if the policy has been implemented. We have included some policies that, as currently implemented, have drawbacks or risks, but we suggest ways to improve them to better meet justice and affordability objectives. You can search for a specific policy by keyword, or browse a subset of policies based on a variety of filters, which you can learn about below. For guiding questions about how to identify policy priorities for your state, see: What policies are right for my state?

We want to hear from you! To chat about policy ideas for your state or get a walkthrough of the library, reach out here! And if you have ideas for new policy entries or case studies, let us know!

How to Navigate the Library

The Energy Affordability Policy Library provides a range of filters to help you identify specific policies or search by specific outcomes or strategies. These include:

  • Community Impact: This filter lets you browse for energy affordability policies that provide additional benefits to communities and to society at large, such as resilience or climate mitigation.
  • Keyword: This filter identifies policies affecting specific topic areas, such as housing, data centers, or energy efficiency.
  • Affordability Strategy: This filter identifies policies around a core affordability strategy, such as residential decarbonization, funding/financing, household protections, and utility reforms.
  • Policy Mechanism: This filter identifies the decision-making space where a policy might be enacted, whether that be legislative, regulatory, litigation, and/or executive.
  • Region: This filter identifies whether a policy is typically enacted at a local, state, regional, and/or federal level.
  • Search: Look up a topic or policy directly by using the search bar.

Click on the policy concept title under “Policy or Regulation” in the Library table to navigate to a specific policy. You can Reset your search using the button on the right of the filters. 

What’s In a Policy Entry? 

Each policy entry includes the following sections:

  • Summary Table: A brief overview of key policy features, such as impact area, region, and oversight.
  • Why This Matters: A summary of the problem that the policy is trying to solve.
  • Policy Solution: A brief overview of the policy concept.
  • Model Policy Features: A list of policy components needed to ensure the policy is effective and equitable, including options and variations as appropriate.
  • Potential Policy Limitations and Pitfalls: Potential downsides or common pitfalls for the policy, particularly in the case of poor implementation, such as insufficient consumer protections or high barriers to participation. 
  • Complementary Policies: Additional policies that may enhance policy effectiveness or fill a relevant gap outside of the policy’s scope.
  • Additional Information: Any additional contextual or historical information to help understand the policy or its implementation.
  • Examples: Examples of partial or full policy implementation, including scale of impact as well as challenges or limitations to the effectiveness of the policy as enacted.
  • Resources: Additional resources, including from other organizations, such as model policy language, policy trackers, and relevant research and analysis.