Issue: IRA

This Blueprint for Affordable Energy lays out a plan to lower energy bills, confront the climate crisis, and rein in runaway corporate power.

With energy costs on the rise, I have been scouring trusted sources for answers on the best ways to talk about the energy affordability crisis. Let me point you to three grounding strategies that have helped me figure out how we can make the energy affordability case.

The landscape for clean energy buildout in the US has changed dramatically in the last year. Yet one constant is the ongoing barrage of mis- and dis-information1 from a variety of actors, from industry-backed anti-wind front groups to the President. The narratives and debates continue to evolve, however, and this report collects relevant research and insights from practice from the past 12 months, to provide guidance for anti-disinformation practitioners on two key emerging topics in the clean energy information space:
Affordability: electricity costs and clean energy
Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS)

Potential Energy recently hosted a webinar offering a first look at new research on how to communicate around clean energy during what Americans see as a “cost of living crisis.” The study reveals fresh insights into how Americans are thinking about the cost of living crisis, the role of climate action and clean energy, and what messages resonate most when affordability is top of mind.

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.