Issue: Energy Policy

This guide is designed to help organizations bring a consumer-centered lens to energy policy debates, and to show how utility regulation, affordability programs, and climate justice intersect with state budgets and economic health. By using this guide, you can frame energy affordability not just as an environmental or technical issue, but as a core economic justice concern, one that directly impacts household stability, community resilience, and long-term, your state’s prosperity.

This messaging guide is designed to equip organizations with clear, evidence-driven language to hold IOUs accountable, advocate on behalf of consumers, and demand transparency. Tailor the messaging strategy and sample talking points to fit your state’s context.

Join us for our final Clean Energy Deep Dive of the year, featuring Clean Virginia, a group on the frontlines of the clean energy fight.

Views on grid-connected battery energy storage systems (BESS) are positive, but awareness is low: people are at an early stage of learning (and likely thinking) about this emerging technology, and over time opinions could potentially be swayed either way. Results from a national survey and a message test indicate no major opposition to BESS, and support is high after being informed about basic information, though there are some concerns about risks. When asked, people rate grid reliability as the most convincing reason for BESS, followed by its ability to support intermittent renewable energy; BESS’s positive impacts on local economies and lowering utility bills were also convincing. In testing, both high production value videos featuring testimonials from renewable energy workers as well as simpler graphic explainer videos were persuasive.

Salem Alliance for the Environment is a volunteer organization fighting the climate crisis and working for a sustainable future for Salem, MA. This resource documents the development of Offshore Wind and a Community Benefits Agreements (CBA) in Salem.