Final Research Paper

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Institution

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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.