Franz Hochstrasser

The clean energy transition will not be just OR successful if elected officials continue to boost fossil fuel development under the guise of “permitting reform”. ODI is joining 360+ climate and environmental organizations nationwide to urge the Senate to reject a permitting reform bill riddled with giveaways to oil and gas, including fast-tracking LNG export approvals, overhauling bedrock environmental laws, and rolling back commonsense oil and gas reforms. When it comes to the ocean, the bill 🚩🚩🚩mandates annual offshore oil and gas lease sales of at least 60 million acres🚩🚩🚩 and undermines protections for the critically endangered Rice’s whale. No one describes it more clearly than House Natural Resources Committee Ranking Member Raúl Grijalva: “I’ve said it enough times, but it clearly bears repeating that checking off wish lists for oil, gas, and mining companies is not permitting reform.” We can–and must–move forward with building clean energy infrastructure the right way. The Manchin/Barrasso bill is not it. We want #OceanClimateAction that is consistent with US climate goals, including the landmark deal reached at COP28 to transition AWAY from fossil fuels. https://lnkd.in/gcpmeeVD

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New blog! Federal energy and environmental policy has become increasingly "place-based," addressing energy and environmental justice issues through grants, tax credits, etc. But are these "place-based" policies targeting the right places? TL;DR: No. We look at 4 recent programs: Justice40, Energy Communities, Disadvantaged Communities, and Environmental and Climate Justice communities. Together, these programs cover a whopping 79% of US land mass and 64% of the population. How we got here is complicated (we share details in the piece) but some of the outcomes are absurd. For example, Times Square qualifies for Justice40. Most of Orange County, CA—including Disneyland—qualifies as an “energy community,” while most of the Permian basin doesn't. Much of Ann Arbor, Michigan, and Berkeley, California—affluent cities with a large college-age population—qualify as low-income communities due to low income levels, likely because most students earn little or no income. Along with flawed targeting, programs don't offer the things that communities need. If you qualify for J40 because of air pollution, the benefits offered don't necessarily do anything to address air pollution. If you're an energy community, solar and wind projects are incentivized. But struggling energy communities often have much more pressing issues like plunging tax revenues or substandard housing. Are place-based policies inherently flawed? Of course not! But if we're going to use them to try and address our many energy and environmental challenges, let's do a better job targeting the right resources to the right places. https://lnkd.in/gGnccZVk

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Check out my latest paper, on how clean hydrogen is one of the most promising avenues to decarbonize our future.

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The escalating utility bills and affordability issues pose a critical national crisis that demands our immediate attention as we transition to clean energy. https://lnkd.in/ejqkEtPp #AJustTransition

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New map released by Dept. of Energy shows where investments are flowing so communities can be alert to opportunities for community benefits plans and agreements. "This Community Benefits Map for Demonstration and Deployment Projects is a tool that local communities can use to better understand what DOE-supported projects are being developed in their areas. This will allow local community members and other leaders to engage more effectively with the project, ultimately creating stronger and more specific benefits and building long-term project support." https://lnkd.in/eHPd7353

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Friday reading round up! ⏰ : It was a busy week for new publications and resources for regulators, communities, and advocates here at RMI. 🌧 🔥 It's increasingly clear from states around the country from Hawaii to North Carolina to Texas that unplanned for, unmitigated climate events result in higher customer bills and risks to utility insurance, investment prospects and ultimately, solvency. Check out this insight brief from Jeffrey Sward, PhD and Becky Xilu Li that outlines the ways that regulators and utilities can implement modern climate risk assessment frameworks. With these tools, decisionmakers can understand what those risks are, figure out how to mitigate them, and then make equitable decisions about how to distribute the costs of extreme event disaster response and mitigation measures. https://lnkd.in/gXxh4ze9 👷‍♀️ 👩‍🌾 We know that to deliver on the promise of energy equity and accelerate project development, new energy projects need to bring measurable benefits to communities from reducing energy costs to boosting local economies. But how do you actually do that in practice? Community Benefits Plans (CBP) are one tool to support communities and developers to think through how they'll deliver clean energy benefits where they are needed most, and in the latest blog from Zach Clayton, EIT, Jeremy Richardson, Erifili Draklellis, Hadia Sheerazi, we share 16 metrics  to help utilities and project developers create impactful, accountable CBPs that prioritize workforce investment, community engagement, and equity. https://lnkd.in/g_WPp8HC 🛠 🔦 Also from Becky Xilu Li alongside David Posner, Christian Fong Maria Castillo and Erifili Draklellis - we've published the IRA Regulatory Toolkit! This resource provides tangible, actionable guidance for regulators, consumer advocates, and environmental advocates - a landscape overview of the pieces of the IRA that have the most relevance for improving the affordability, reliability, and resilience of our energy systems, and resources on how to go about doing this so that your community gets the most value from federal resources and the benefits of the law go to those folks who need it most.

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🌊 What would it take to weave equity principles within state offshore wind programs and policies? How can states build an engagement process between states and communities for offshore wind planning and development that prioritizes shared decision-making, co-design and co-implementation of solutions, shared benefits across all parties and investments in communities? 💚 Our CESA-hosted group of state agencies and community-based organizations has been working together on this topic for several years, first developing a scoping dialogue, building up to a workshop next week, and gearing up for a working group starting in the fall. 📣 We still have a few open spots for additional CBOs!! We value and compensate CBOs' participation. ⚠ This is open ONLY to states and environmental justice or energy justice organizations that represent the communities in which they are located and hail from across the country. 👉 Read the description below and contact Sam Schacht at [email protected] if you would like to learn more and participate! 🌟 https://lnkd.in/ej5HpVNv

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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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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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This episode is a must for anyone working on #climate in the United States.

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IRA funding secured, now what? 🤷‍  HARC’s Director of Strategic Initiatives and External Affairs, Marina V. Badoian-Kriticos, will be moderating a panel discussion on the next steps for utilities and local government agencies post-Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) and Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) Grants. This panel at the SPEER Industry and Policy Workshop in Austin, TX, on September 20th, 2024 will share their experiences after having recently received their grant awards. They will dive into the journey of managing federal grants, from application to project execution, offering insights to optimize the entire process, and ensure lasting impacts on their communities. The IRA funds a variety of projects addressing climate and energy challenges. HARC Is collaborating on multiple IRA-funded projects, including the ForUsTree initiative designed to address tree equity issues in Houston, and the Texas Solar for All Coalition which aims to bridge the solar equity gap in underserved communities. Learn more about the SPEER Industry and Policy Workshop here https://bit.ly/4gjfEBY   Learn more about Marina Badoian-Kriticos here https://bit.ly/MBKriticos   Learn more about ForUsTree here https://bit.ly/3PwvBIu  Learn more about Solar For All here https://bit.ly/47aIPTx  #HARCResearch #spEEr24 #Infrastructureinvestment #CleanEnergyForAll #EnergyResilience #EnergyEquity #HoustonEquity #GrantFunding 

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"Utilities have for decades “been using the same playbooks to build centralized generation and associated transmission and distribution to meet long-term demand needs. And it’s largely worked,” Shah said. “But with demand growth accelerating from data centers, new manufacturing, a surge of electric vehicles and electrified appliances ... an old grid operations paradigm needs to be updated.” After roughly two decades of stagnant electricity demand, the North American Electric Reliability Corp. now forecasts an approximately 15% to 20% increase in electricity consumption over the next decade, DOE noted in its brief. And by 2050, demand could double to meet net-zero emissions targets. Importantly, this demand growth is not unprecedented, according to Louise White, a senior consultant with the DOE’s Office of Technology Transitions and Loan Programs Office. Before 2005, the U.S. experienced periods of 10-year load growth of up to 30%, she said." https://lnkd.in/eZXGKWHf

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📣 📣 Artificial intelligence has tremendous potential to accelerate and support the clean energy transition, additionally the energy sector is uniquely well-positioned to benefit from these advancements, but several key barriers are preventing it from being adopted rapidly or at scale. I'm thrilled to host a panel next week at the National Press Club that will explore the benefits of AI for the energy transition, as well as how AI technology can be scaled in a rapid, safe, and fair manner. My fellow panelists Claus Daniel, Eelco de Jong, Marissa Hummon and I will explore the following: ➡️ What frameworks are required to build trust in AI technology so it can serve as a catalyst and main enabler of the energy transition? ➡️ How can AI be leveraged to optimize energy production and distribution? ➡️ In what ways can AI-driven predictive analytics improve energy efficiency in buildings, industries, and transportation, thus reducing overall energy consumption and emissions? ➡️ How might AI-enabled smart grids enhance the integration of intermittent renewable energy sources into existing energy infrastructures, ensuring stability and reliability of supply? ➡️ What legislation will promote the adoption and implementation of artificial intelligence to better predict and respond to extreme weather. ➡️ What role can AI play in facilitating the development and deployment of advanced energy storage solutions to overcome the intermittency challenges of renewables? ➡️ How can AI-driven optimization algorithms improve the design and operation of energy systems to maximize their output while minimizing environmental impacts? ❗Register and join us ❗

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Recommend checking out this op-ed in the Anchorage Daily News from NOAA Administrator Rick Sprinad on the IRA's coastal resilience investments. Just last month, NOAA awarded $78.9 million to Alaskan communities through the Climate Resilience Regional Challenge, which supports community-led climate resilience projects across the country. As Dr. Spinrad critically notes: “communities’ demand for funding was 28 times what we could offer.” 🤯 More severe storms ➕ rising seas 🟰 need for comprehensive adaptation of our coasts to address both short- and long-term threats to coastal communities, ecosystems, and infrastructure. The IRA coastal resilience investments are getting to work–but this is not the end of this climate story for people living in coastal areas. Congress needs to step up with long-term, sustained investments for the 40% of Americans who live in coastal counties across the country. #OceanClimateAction https://lnkd.in/gNAeWH9M

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This EIA chart on U.S. energy source and sector usage use is really insightful.

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check out this excellent primer - I learned a lot, and it made me think more about the constraints any one set of tools, like watermarking, are dealing with if we ask them to solve for an underlying concept - like "trust".

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If you are excited about a cleaner, safer brighter clean energy future - new and exciting jobs and innovation- - AND you have lived through extra hot weather, more rainfall and severe storms, winds and flooding - your home or family and friends favorite destinations - if these issues matter to you, your friends and family today, everyday and into the future - then join #cleanenergyforharris and others to learn how to share these concerns about the elections with #climatevoters ...!

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On June 13, 2024, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission issued an "Order to Show Cause" under Section 206 of the Federal Power Act to four regional transmission organizations (RTOs) and independent system operators (ISOs). The impact of "TO self-funding" on generation developers can be substantial. Mike Blackwell provides a breakdown of the potential impacts on generation developers: https://lnkd.in/gXk8zbn9 #EnergyRegulation #FERC

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