Analysis
The high economic, social, and health costs of unaffordable energy
By Arjun Makhijani, PhD – Unaffordable energy bills impact all of society—including those who can afford to regularly pay their own bills. The direct impacts of unaffordable energy for families experiencing economic stress include ill-health, hunger, utility shutoffs and even evictions because of their inability to pay all the monthly bills. But the indirect impacts…
New Report: FEMA Rollback Threatens to Overwhelm States
Read our report on the extreme variability in how a state may face limited climate impacts one year and billions of dollars in damage the next—and how the scale of this impact compares to individual state expenditures and their ability to respond. Climate disasters are growing in strength and frequency across the United States, from…
Housing & Climate Equity: An analysis on climate and housing policies that benefit environmental justice communities and low-income tenants
Just Solutions’ latest brief analyzes two Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) programs that provide targeted investments in housing, the Green and Resilient Retrofit Program (GRRP) and Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP). This brief also examines four innovative model policies from California, New York, Oregon, and Pennsylvania that are filling the…
The Perfect Storm of Extraction, Poverty, and Climate Change: A Framework for Assessing Vulnerability, Resilience, Adaptation, and a Just Transition in Frontline Communities
Frontline communities bear the disproportionate burden of environmental and climate impacts. We know the communities that are at the greatest risk. We can identify factors that put them at risk. We are less successful in communicating causal relationships, proposing systemic, upstream policy solutions that act upon these causal relationships, and identifying ways to measure whether…
ANALYSIS OF THE INFLATION REDUCTION ACT
The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), lauded as the biggest climate change legislation in the history of the United States, passed the U.S. Senate on August 7, 2022 and was signed into law by President Biden on August 16. Just Solutions completed a detailed analysis of the environmental justice provisions in the IRA including beneficial investments,…
IRA: Our Analysis of the Inflation Reduction Act
Historic climate investments, big giveaways to industry, environmental justice priorities short-changed. Primary Author: Sylvia Chi, Senior Strategist The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) passed the U.S. Senate on August 7, 2022 and was signed into law by President Joseph R. Biden on August 16. The law has been lauded as the biggest climate change legislation in the…
Energy Burden and the Clean Energy Transition: Challenges and just solutions from energy assistance practitioners and advocates from around the country
This report that shines a light on energy burden reduction as an important part of the clean energy transition. This report examines fundamental inequities of our current energy landscape and the opportunities to address the issue while our nation considers changes to the power sector. Primary Author: Zully Juarez, Senior Research and Policy Analyst Without…
Comprehensive Building Blocks for a Regenerative and Just 100% Policy
The Just Solutions Collective launched a new effort to bring forward and coalesce the expertise from frontline communities into the Comprehensive Building Blocks for a Regenerative and Just 100% Policy. This groundbreaking and extensive document lays out the components of an 100% policy that centers equity and justice.
