The Many Levers to Address Energy Insecurity
Our Perspective in Nature Energy compiles a comprehensive set of levers, i.e., policies and actions, available to energy sector actors to address energy insecurity. The most comprehensive approach to tackling this widespread challenge is through a combination of many different levers, pulled by a range of electricity sector actors. As affordability challenges increase across the U.S., it is now more important than ever to combat growing energy insecurity.
Public attention to energy affordability recently intensified, as utility bills increase and energy demands grows. The topic frequently makes headlines in venues like the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Philadelphia Inquirer, showing salience and relevance.
Although the United States has several federal programs designed to address energy insecurity (e.g., the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, the Weatherization Assistance Program), they are historically underfunded. Recent program uncertainty highlights the importance of actions of others energy sector actors to address energy insecurity.
In our recent Nature Energy Perspective, we identify the “levers”—policies, protocols, or actions—that energy sector actors can take to directly address energy insecurity or indirectly through structural changes that reduce overall system costs. Such actors include state and local governments, utilities, regional transmission organizations (RTOs), the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), community-based organizations (CBOs) and non-governmental organizations (NGOs).
Each actor has levers within their purview that can be used to reduce the incidence and severity of energy insecurity. We argue that a comprehensive—and necessary—approach to combat widespread U.S. energy insecurity is to combine multiple levers across different actors.
We highlight selected levers available to energy sector actors in Table 1.
| Relevant Actors | Lever | Primary Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| State governments; utilities; CBOs and NGOs | Increase and expand affordability and financial assistance programs, provide bill adjustments | Reduce financial burden, prevent disconnections for nonpayment |
| State governments; utilities; local governments | Increase/expand consumer protections | Protect households from disconnection during financial hardship or extreme weather |
| State governments; utilities; local governments | Promote and fund energy efficiency programs | Lower household energy demand, reduce long-term bills |
| State governments; utilities; RTOs; FERC | Reform rate design | Increase affordability of household utility bills |
| Utilities; local governments; CBOs and NGOs | Facilitate and deploy distributed energy resources | Reduce reliance on the grid, stabilize household energy costs |
| State governments; local governments; CBOs and NGOs | Subsidize housing improvements for energy insecure households | Address drivers of high home energy use |
| State governments; utilities | Require advertisement of available programs (financial or otherwise) | Reduce financial burden, provide information to empower households |
| Utilities; local governments; CBOs and NGOs | Expand investment into and use of distributed energy resources (DERs) | Reduce reliance on the grid, stabilize household energy costs |
| Local governments; CBOs and NGOs | Increase quantity of resiliency hubs and advertise/provide bill clinics | Provide information and resources to empower households |
Direct Levers. Direct levers aim to reduce the incidence of energy insecurity and can immediately affect households’ abilities to pay bills or avoid utility disconnections. These levers typically belong to actors who closely interact with consumers, such as state and local governments, utility companies, CBOs, and NGOs.
State and local governments and utilities can provide or expand bill assistance programs to energy insecure households. Local governments, CBOs, and NGOs can create resilience hubs and offer information on programs and assistance available to energy insecure households. Additionally, CBOs and NGOs can provide information, through either bill clinics or other classes, to households in need.
Structural Changes. Structural changes are more fundamental, longer-term shifts that, over time, can overcome the drivers of energy insecurity and reduce overall system costs. Structural changes that decrease energy costs or mitigate causes of energy insecurity tend to be legal in nature. State legislatures can create laws to prevent utility disconnection for state public utility commissions to implement and commissions can also use their existing statutory authority to provide additional protections.
RTOs can speed interconnection queues and implement policies to improve transmission planning processes. Such actions will decrease electricity generation and transmission costs which, in turn, will decrease household energy costs.
Similarly, FERC can update transmission planning processes to reduce related costs and increase reliability, thus decreasing electricity costs for consumers.
Finally, local governments can create more affordable and energy efficient housing to ease financial strains on households.
We recognize some levers have greater feasibility than others, and that some require actions from multiple actors. The path to reducing energy insecurity is a targeted combination of financial assistance with meaningful systematic changes to provide prolonged household relief. We can accomplish this feat through pulling the levers detailed here and in our Perspective.
Alison L. Knasin
Lab Manager, Energy Justice LabAlison Knasin is the manager of the Energy Justice Lab. She manages all cloud-based operations and oversees research and data management for the lab. Prior to joining the lab, she received her PhD in inorganic chemistry from the University of Pennsylvania.
Sanya Carley
Mark Alan Hughes Faculty DirectorSanya 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.
David M. Konisky
Associate Dean for Research, Paul H. O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana UniversityDavid Konisky is the associate dean for research and a Lynton K. Caldwell Professor at the Paul H. O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University. He also co-directs the Energy Justice Lab and serves as editor-in-chief for the journal Environmental Politics.
Alexandra Klass
James G. Degnan Professor of Law, Michigan LawAlexandra Klass is the James G. Degnan Professor of Law at Michigan Law. Klass is a 2023-2024 Kleinman Center Visiting Scholar.
Shelley Welton
Presidential Distinguished ProfessorShelley Welton is Presidential Distinguished Professor of Law and Energy Policy with the Kleinman Center and Penn Carey Law. Her research focuses on how climate change is transforming energy and environmental law and governance.
