Matt Petersen

The @American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy’s 2024 City Clean Energy Scorecard came out this week! This scorecard ranks 75 of the largest U.S. cities on energy efficiency and reducing GHG emissions and identifies the best-performing cities, the most improved, and those with substantial room for improvement, with recommendations for making progress. This year, the top three cities are: 1. #SanFrancisco 2. #Denver 3. #Seattle Find out what they did to earn the top spots and where your city ranks⬇️ https://lnkd.in/eUEdqyqf 

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We’re accepting proposals from entities to help Washington communities access federal grant funding and tax assistance for clean energy projects. This funding was allocated through the Climate Commitment Act, with a large part of each program intended to support overburdened communities. The two appropriations are designed to support community-based organizations, local governments, ports, tribes, and other entities across the state. Federal Grant Writing Assistance Program • Pre-proposal conference: Wednesday, May 1 at 12 p.m. • Proposals due: Thursday, May 23 • Learn more: https://bit.ly/49Osbsy Federal Clean Energy Tax Credit Assistance Program • Pre-proposal conference: Tuesday, May 7 at 3 p.m. • Proposals due: Thursday, May 30 • Learn more: https://bit.ly/3xCemQA

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Reusable Food Serviceware has been a hot topic across the country and in the State of Colorado. Attend this webinar on July 10th to learn more from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)! #COGreenBusiness #ReusableServiceWare #Webinar

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🌍🏙️ NEW RESOURCE: How can cities generate sustainable funding for equitable climate action? 💡📄 In this new publication and fact sheet developed in partnership with members of the Just Transition Fund Coalition, we examine innovative mechanisms available to the City of Minneapolis to combat climate change and address historical inequities: 🏭 Pollution Control Annual Registration (PCAR) 🔌 Utility Franchise Fees By applying a social cost of carbon, these mechanisms could generate over $110 million annually for critical climate investments like: ✅ Community-wide weatherization 🏘️🔧 ✅ Upgrading & electrifying heating/cooling 🌡️🔌  ✅ Expanding clean energy access ☀️🔋 ✅ Workforce development & green jobs 👷💼 The paper provides a roadmap for cities to restructure fees to disincentivize emissions while raising funds for a just energy transition. Crucially, it emphasizes community oversight and accountability to ensure investments benefit those most impacted by climate change. Low-wealth households and businesses are shielded through exemptions and targeted support. While focused on Minneapolis, it offers a replicable framework for cities nationwide to create bold funding solutions at the scale urgently needed to address the climate emergency. 🌎🚨 I'm so proud to have worked on this project on behalf of the Just Transition Coalition alongside my colleague Cherylyn Kelley, with legal research support ⚖ from Daniel Carpenter-Gold and Joey Vossen at the Public Health Law Center and patient and thoughtful guidance from Alice Madden. Thanks to Matt Grimley for crunching the numbers and creating the charts 📊 and to Tori Hong for creating the incredible illustrations to help tell this story. 🎨 Special shout-out to the amazing IMT Comms team - CM Caplinger and Rita Perez - for their beautiful design work that brings the paper to life! ✨ Feast your eyes on the fact sheet & full paper for recommendations on equitable collection, disbursement, and oversight of climate funds ⬇️ https://lnkd.in/gvEiwqRk #ClimateSolutions #JustTransition #SustainableCities #CommunityResilience

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Households in disadvantaged and low-income communities across the United States are disproportionately affected by the impacts of unaffordable housing and energy bills, unsafe or unhealthy housing conditions, and climate change. The new R2E2 Playbook highlights dozens of strategies and examples to help program administrators establish residential energy retrofit initiatives that are community-led, easy-to-use, and able to achieve benefits like healthier and more affordable housing, reduced energy burdens, new economic opportunities for workers and small business owners, and reduced pollution. Please join Residential Retrofits for Energy Equity (R2E2) on June 26 at 2 p.m. ET as we launch the R2E2 Playbook, a tool for program administrators seeking to establish, improve, or expand building energy upgrade programs for low- and moderate-income housing. https://lnkd.in/djJc4Td3

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Have you seen the new report, Expanding #SolarAccess to Underserved Communities Through SolSmart? This report examines two case studies of ways in which major U.S. cities—Washington, D.C. and Minneapolis, Minnesota—have made sure that residents benefit from solar energy installations, offering replicable actions for other cities. Access it here: https://lnkd.in/eWTdHGPj

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ICYMI: Last week, City & State published a Q&A with Elijah Hutchinson about the #EJNYC Report and Mapping Tool. The publication does a fair job of summarizing the "so what?" of the effort: "The main conclusions of the report, which also identified structural racism and poverty as contributors to environmental injustice, were not all that surprising on their own given previous studies and reporting on environmental inequities. But the 274-page report and mapping tool bring much-needed detail to help understand specific environmental risks and make the case for funding to be directed to help address those risks." And on the subject of governance, I thought this was especially notable (take note, Los Angeles advocates): "Breaking the walls down between government and environmental justice advocates is really important for us because what our office is trying to do – which is very different from a traditional climate office – is we’re trying to center environmental justice within our already extremely ambitious climate agenda." Read more: https://lnkd.in/g3mxKHeH #environmentaljustice #climatejustice #climatechange #newyorkcity #climateresilience #climateadaptation

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Real world experience continues to show that it’s time for FERC to revisit the misguided premise underlying competitive transmission in Order 1000. FERC has the opportunity before it now in the proposed regional transmission planning and cost allocation rule. The time is now for FERC to meet the challenge.

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#PJM and #MISO plan to study the potential for increasing mobility btwn #gridsystems. Overarching themes include: -       The importance of interregional #transmissionplanning for enhancing #reliability and #resilience in the #powergrid, addressing the increasing demand for #cleanenergy, and mitigating congestion through efficient and cost-effective #transmissionupgrades.  -       Collaboration between stakeholders, including #gridoperators, state #utility regulators, advocacy groups, and consulting firms, to optimize infrastructure and maximize benefits for consumers.  -       #Regulatory frameworks like #FERCorder1000 and potential legislative measures such as the #BigWIRESAct underscore the broader policy context shaping these initiatives towards a more interconnected and robust #energyinfrastructure.

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Climate Mayors and C40 Cities urge Congressional leaders to secure a FY25 spending bill that supports the clean energy transition, and allocates special attention to extreme heat that offers additional relief and funding for cities. With historic heat waves sweeping the nation, we specifically call on the inclusion of H.R. 3965, the Extreme Heat Emergency Act, which adds “extreme heat” as an eligible disaster under the Stafford Act. This will allow for communities to access funds from FEMA for relief for impacts from wildfire smoke and heat waves. Read our 5 additional recommendations here: https://lnkd.in/gzqacAGB

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A growing body of evidence shows that our utility systems do not work for everybody equally. Low-to-moderate-income communities (LMI communities) and underserved communities often face more frequent and more prolonged power outages, which have costly and, in some cases— like during a heat wave — deadly effects. Business-as-usual in most cases is that utilities do not have a comprehensive set of protections and programs to address these disparities. Where they do, the programs that have been created often fall short of delivering on their stated goals. The important thing to understand is that these failings can be overcome. My colleagues, Erifili Draklellis, Roberto Z., and I wrote a report on one part of the solution, building on what we learned providing process support to Solar Energy Innovation Network teams. We explored the ways local champions can spearhead collaboration between LMI communities and their utilities to deploy commercial solar and solar + storage systems so that every local business and non-profit, regardless of whether they own their own property or rent, can receive their benefits in calm or crisis. https://lnkd.in/gQ_7NyWF

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Congratulations to the winning states of this year's SLICE awards! These are all innovative programs advancing the state of clean energy policy in the country. 🙌 Of note, California launched the VERY FIRST flexible demand appliance **standard**. That's a big deal. The approach could be replicated for all sorts of appliances, including heat pumps, storage etc. Awesome work Deana Carrillo, MPP and team! "In 2023, the California Energy Commission created the first-in-the-world flexible demand appliance standards for residential swimming pool controls for water pumping and heating equipment. There are over 1 million pools in the state, making pool controls an ideal candidate for the new FDAS regulations that employ load shifting and time-of-use rates to avoid emissions associated with electricity generation during peak demand. Flexible demand technologies enable an appliance to schedule, shift, or curtail electrical demand with the consumer’s consent. The standards for pool controls will save ratepayers millions of dollars, improve the reliability and resilience of the electric grid, and improve air quality."

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Groundwater recharge is tricky to estimate, especially when climate is changing Does groundwater availability decrease at the same rate as rainwater declines? Will a 10% reduction in rainfall lead to a 10% reduction in groundwater recharge? It’s a critically important question for water managers but it’s very challenging to answer. https://lnkd.in/dH_bap2U

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"Under the current policy regime, municipalities are largely responsible for ensuring growth in high-risk areas will stand up to climate change. And while there are data gaps, municipalities generally know where their high-risk neighbourhoods are. The critical next step is disclosing and building for those risks. Unless flood risk is better reflected in zoning policies, there is real potential that many new homes are going to be in harm’s way. Given that B.C. will need an estimated 2.58 million new housing units by 2030 to accommodate population growth, communities cannot afford to be building in neighbourhoods that could soon be under water."

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Regionalization of utilities is slow but there are examples of progress, says Alan Roberson of Association of State Drinking Water Administrators (ASDWA). The SAFER program in California promotes regional solutions and encourages consolidation for smaller systems. The emergence of public facing scorecards in Louisiana and Wisconsin can drive demand for systems to take new approaches like banding together. The Virginia Municipal Utilities Act provides a framework to facilitate regional cooperation, a practice that has taken hold in rural areas. #podcast: https://lnkd.in/eE3hnjiW From a conversation at the Reservoir Center for Water Solutions #water #watersolutions #watermanagement #drinkingwater

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This. FEMA's mission statement is a lot simpler today than it was when I had the opportunity to serve there from 2012-2017, but the end goal is the same: help people and communities before, during, and after disaster. The #StaffordAct authorities that #Congress has granted to the Agency reflect the national benefit that will result from the adoption and enforcement of the latest published editions of relevant consensus-based #buildingcodes, specifications, and standards that incorporate the latest hazard-resistant designs and establish minimum acceptable criteria for the design, construction, and maintenance of structures and facilities. The #returnoninvestment to the American #taxpayer is very measurable and will only result in greater savings as more severe weather phenomena happen with ever growing frequency. Disaster strikes regardless of political affiliation. Americans should agree that a minimal investment in building codes -- especially in the 30-plus percent of the U.S. not covered by them -- will bolster national resilience in the face of extreme weather.

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Assessments of water affordability inform decisions about utility rates, assistance programs, and more. But the traditional metric for assessment often falls short, leading government agencies and water utilities to underestimate the true number of households at risk of losing affordable access to basic water service. Civil and Environmental Engineering at Stanford University researchers offer a new approach to measuring water affordability that could help identify and aid those most at risk.

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Today, more than 20 federal agencies updated Climate Adaptation Plans that expand agency efforts to ensure their facilities, employees, resources, and operations are increasingly resilient to climate change impacts like extreme weather #climate #climatechange #adaptation #climateleadership

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