Policy Design

To urgently address the problem of climate change, we must design innovative policies that shake entrenched habits and move us toward a sustainable future. With an emphasis on energy policy design, our faculty explore policy solutions that accelerate a just energy transition without leaving people behind or burdening them with unintended consequences.

Faculty Leadership

Sanya Carley

Mark Alan Hughes Faculty Director

Sanya Carley is the Faculty Director of the Kleinman Center. She is also Vice Provost for Climate Science, Policy, and Action at Penn and Presidential Distinguished Professor of Energy Policy and City Planning at the Stuart Weitzman School of Design.

Energy Justice Lab

Co-directed by Sanya Carley of the University of Pennsylvania and David Konisky of Indiana University, the Energy Justice Lab is a collaborative research initiative dedicated to understanding and improving the equity and justice dimensions of the energy transition. Together, the two universities are advancing research that informs more equitable energy and climate policy.

Utility Disconnection Dashboard

The Energy Justice Lab’s Utility Disconnections Dashboard 2.0 provides interactive visualizations and tools for exploring energy utility disconnections across the United States. The platform has informed utility policy and legislative efforts in states from Maine to Oregon, making it a trusted resource for policymakers, advocates, researchers, and the public. The dashboard enables users to identify geographic patterns, search for individual utility companies, examine state consumer protection policies, and download data and graphics.

Testimony: Maine Conservation Voters

Testimony: OR Citizens’ Utility Board vs. Portland General Electric Company

Rocky Mountain Institute Disconnections Handbook

Explore the Dashboard

20% Increase in Disconnections

Get a good stat from Sanya/Alison. Metrics from the website?

Power Lines

The Human Costs of American Energy in Transition

Sanya Carley and David Konisky of the Energy Justice Lab published the book Power Lines: The Human Costs of American Energy in Transition, a timely examination of the inequities shaping America’s evolving energy system.

Drawing on stories from communities across the country, the book explores how race, class, wealth, and geography influence who bears the costs—and who reaps the benefits—of the clean energy transition.

Publication Highlights

Boomtowns in the Battery Belt

IRA investments in EV and battery manufacturing across the U.S. “Battery Belt” are creating modern boomtowns. This digest examines two case studies, outlines key challenges and opportunities, and offers policy recommendations for continued growth.

Measuring What Matters: Rethinking Energy Insecurity Metrics

A quarter of American households experience energy insecurity, forcing trade-offs between utility bills and other essentials. This digest discusses existing energy insecurity metrics and proposes a new holistic framework for measuring this hardship.

Communities Are at Risk If We Don’t Slow the Roll on Data Center Development

Data centers are gobbling up energy, water, tax incentives, and media attention at breakneck speed. What does this mean for the communities on the frontlines?

Levers to Address Energy Insecurity in the United States

The study identifies practical actions that governments, utilities, and community organizations can take together to reduce energy insecurity and make energy more affordable.

People Under 30 Are Most Concerned About the Environmental Impact of Data Centers

As AI infrastructure rapidly expands, it’s raising important questions about energy, climate, and the future that today’s young people will inherit.

Energy Costs Are High and Unaffordable

With energy costs continuing to rise, utilities, governments, community organizations, and consumers can take practice actions to improve energy affordability.

Making an Impact

The Disconnection Spiral

Analysis of proposed federal cuts to the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) contributed to the national policy conversation on energy affordability. The analysis was cited in a report by U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren and Edward Markey, Higher Energy Bills, Lost Jobs, and Growing Uncertainty: How Trump’s War on Clean Energy is Hurting Massachusetts Families.

“AI power demand all adds up to significant cost increases for electricity consumers and significant increases in local pollution and will prevent new clean energy generation from connecting to the grid.”

Senior FELLOW JOHN QUIGLEY in REUTERS