Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

Numerous policies have been adopted to accelerate the transition to a clean energy future. Policy success often depends on both its efficiency and its equitability. Equity considerations tend to receive far less attention in energy policy studies. With the emergence of the energy justice literature, there is a pressing need to understand how clean energy policies intersect with justice concerns. The goal of this paper is to offer both theoretical and empirical analyses to explore energy justice from a policy perspective.

We first discuss when and where equity issues arise in various clean energy policy contexts. Here, clean energy policies are defined as policies that promote the adoption and diffusion of sustainable or low-carbon energy technologies, such as energy efficiency, renewable energy, smart grid, and electric vehicles, etc. We also propose a detailed framework for analyzing how key questions in energy justice arise in different energy policies, including who has access to energy, what is energy used for, and who pays for it. The framework connects core policy functions to instruments (regulation, financial incentives, procurement, information and education) as they apply to clean energy policies.

We then fit three case studies into the framework, applying a data-rich energy justice analysis of three policies promoting energy transition. We investigate the fairness and equity in (1) the political distribution of ARRA smart grid investment grant (SGIG), (2) utility smart-meter roll out, and (3) city adoption of green buildings. Federal investment in a “smart grid” and utility smart meter programs offers prime examples of financial incentives and regulation of utility rates affecting a transition to clean energy with important equity implications. In addition, where and how governments use green buildings also has important energy equity implications that directly follow from procurement policies. These three empirical cases involve energy policy efforts at the federal, municipal, and utility levels. The data analysis thus illuminates equity considerations for energy policies across a wide range of government actions.

Results show that clean energy policies have varying justice implications. There is no evidence for inequality in the selection of ARRA SGIG recipients, however the amount of ARRA funding awarded is closely related to racial composition: communities with a lower proportion of Hispanic population tend to receive higher per-capita ARRA funding than their peers, holding all else equal. Inequalities are also found in utility smart meter programs. Utilities operating in wealthier communities or communities with a higher black population percentage are more likely to initiate smart-meter roll out in their service territory. Moreover, smart meter technology diffuses faster in wealthier and better-educated communities. New, publicly owned green-certified buildings show very strong tendencies to be located in poorer areas with more minorities, far more so than private-sector green buildings have. We conclude by connecting these results to how these policies have directly and indirectly addressed justice implications in their design and implementation.