Leading with Equity: Recommendations for State Decision Makers, Utilities, and Regulators to Advance Energy Equity

Through the Leading with Equity initiative, ACEEE researchers have synthesized perspectives from community-based organizations (CBOs) and advocates to provide recommendations to help decision makers advance an equitable energy future through state- and utility-level action. Communities of color and low-income communities face high energy burdens and barriers to accessing energy efficiency and clean energy services, while experiencing disproportionately high levels of pollution and living in less efficient housing. Providing more robust, accessible energy-saving programs and services to communities of color and low-income communities can address this problem and advance an equitable energy future. Decision makers working in state agencies, utilities, and regulatory bodies can better embed equity in their clean energy programs and policies by implementing recommendations based on the expertise of the communities most impacted by climate change, the energy system, and high energy bills. 

These recommendations were gathered in workshops with CBOs and advocates in ACEEE’s Leading with Equity initiative, which aims to ensure that the communities most negatively impacted by the energy system are helping to drive development of improved equity-related metrics and actions in ACEEE’s work and beyond.  

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Government Lead by Example Energy Equity Local and Community Initiatives Utility Business Models