Final Research Paper
Student
Institution
Date
Class
People of colour, races, tribes, and immigrants have all had major disadvantages when it
comes to accumulating money, how they are handled, and how and where they reside. Those
societies have been oppressed for decades by a dysfunctional structure that still has a long way to
go. President Biden's Justice 40 plan, launched by the current administration, aims to make a
difference in those areas by assisting them in growing their carbon footprint and transitioning to
clean energies.
This raises the question, how do we make solar energy more affordable for low-income
households? In this report, we would look at how the United States' federal government can
enact more affordable renewable energy programs in overburdened, poor, and vulnerable
populations. It will also concentrate on the widely held political and economic positions on this
subject, as well as how they have evolved over time, the key players, stakeholders, or
organizations that control it, and how it is practiced, with a particular focus on legislation like the
Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act and the Coat Human Services Reauthorization Act (Baker,
S. H. 2019).
The “low-income home energy assistance Act” (1981) established the plan to assist
homesteads in meeting energy costs for their homes using many program components such as
home heating and cooling assistant, home weatherization and energy crisis assistance. It helps
lower income households pay costs for heating and cooling by distributing coupons, cash and
vouchers which they use to make payments to home energy suppliers or landlords.
Energy crisis help involves functions for supply, shortages, weather-related, and all other
energy related emergencies. For example, households in danger of having their fuel supplies
terminated, the state provides heating sources, cash or even shelter. Weatherization assistance
may include providing all other energy-related repairs for homes or funding for low residential
weatherization costs.
LIHEAP (Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program), is a grant initiative meaning
that a state can choose its eligibility, levels of funding, and administration but within the
statutory requirements. However, over the years, many amendments have put restrictions on the
program discretion of the state. Thus, not more than ten percent of administration cost on states
and not more than 15% can be used on other block grants, and not more than 25% of LIHEAP
should be used on weatherization (Bednar, D. J., & Reames, T. G. 2020).
Net metering may be an advantage in such a way that it reduces incomes for many
worldwide network utilities. However, utility companies may increase their prices to recover
said costs. Net metering can also cause inequalities between the PV and Non-PV owners as the
non-PV owners may pay higher costs.
In the late 1970’s, fuel prices rose at high speeds , marking the beginning of assistance in
funding energy for low-income households by the federal government. The assistance was given
through an emergency energy conservation program. (CSA) community services administrator,
who also administered the funds. In January 1975, President Ford signed into law the head start,
economic opportunity and community partnership act, whose purpose was to assist low-income
families and individuals, the poor and the elderly included, to participate in programs for energy
consumption and to lessen the high costs of energy.
The Rural Electrification Act (1936) gives out federal loans to install electrical systems for rural
areas isolated in the United States. By the time congress passed this act,there was electricity in
urban centers. Senators such as George William Norris and Representatives such as John E
Rankin fully supported the Rural Electrification Act, signed in 1936 by Roosevelt. Additionally,
the speaker of the house at the time was a major proponent of the rural Electrification Act. And
by 1959, 90% of rural areas in the United States were electrified (Jacquet, J. B., & Fergen, J. T.
2018).
We examine the suite of participatory opportunities open to stakeholders when it comes to
making renewable energy cheaper in overburdened societies, given the particular sense of
renewable energy policy, the long-term and iterative nature of renewable energy policy
execution, and the diverse variety of players involved. Our main goal would be to figure out how
stakeholders engage and what incentives (or disincentives) affect their ability to do so. Although
policy makers use a number of tools to involve stakeholders in decision-making, we discovered
that substantive involvement is limited to stakeholder groups that are informed about the issues,
have the capacity to engage in long-term and sustained engagement, and have long-standing
relationships with decision makers and other stakeholders.
This overview would cover how low-income areas have been divided and
disenfranchised for decades, as well as how disadvantaged communities have been impacted in
the past, whether by redlining or a lack of sufficient funding or governmental funding to finance
clean energy programs in those neighborhoods. Also, throughout the paper we will pay attention
to what has been done to bridge the gap between inequalities and injustice that low-income
families still experience. Finally, the role of citizens when it comes to passing legislation or
regulations that make clean energies more available and sustainable within certain groups would
be discussed. This research focuses on ways for stakeholders to participate in RPS policy
development, such as power rate increases and the design of clean energy and energy efficient
systems for consumers. Increased stakeholder interest in electric sector decisions, also known as
"distributed governance" (Baldwin et al., 2018), derives from the belief that the shift from a
concentrated, fossil fuel model to a decentralized, renewable energy paradigm is difficult and has
the potential to radically alter any sector.
References
Baker, S. H. (2019). Anti-resilience: A roadmap for transformational justice within the
energy system. Harv. CR-CLL Rev., 54, 1.
Bednar, D. J., & Reames, T. G. (2020). Recognition of and response to energy poverty in
the United States. Nature Energy, 5(6), 432-439.
Jacquet, J. B., & Fergen, J. T. (2018). The vertical patterns of wind energy: The effects of
wind farm ownership on rural communities in the Prairie Pothole Region of the United
States. Journal of Rural and Community Development, 13(2).
Rountree, Valerie, and Elizabeth Baldwin. “State-Level Renewable Energy Policy
Implementation: How and Why Do Stakeholders Participate?” Frontiers, Frontiers, 18
Jan. 2018, www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2018.00006/full.