Issue: Utilities

Through focus groups in three California communities — Orange and Ventura counties, the Central Valley, and the Central Coast — Data for Progress and the Reliable Grid Project examined Californians’ attitudes on the growing battery storage industry in the state. This research identified low existing awareness of battery storage projects among Californians, and high variability in views of battery storage’s potential to address the California grid’s most pressing challenges.

New polling from Groundwork Collaborative and Data for Progress reveals Americans reject the Trump Administration’s plan to rely on voluntary commitments from corporate actors to lower household bills. While nearly 90% of Americans say the war on Iran will raise prices on essential items, 60% of voters also view energy demand generated by large commercial energy users as a key driver of rising electricity costs. This polling shows that Americans reject reliance on corporations to do the right thing: 60% of voters prefer public sector leadership on energy, saying the public sector should run both grid modernization (60%) and the utilities themselves (58%), as opposed to the private sector.

Electricity bills have joined groceries, housing, and health care as a top tier issue in the affordability crisis. Voters broadly support clean energy and view it as one of the few solutions to help lower energy costs.

Extreme weather events like winter storm Fern offer a short window of opportunity when people are seeking information related to climate change. But while most Americans believe we are experiencing more extreme weather, many still don’t see it as driven by climate change. Climate communicators need to help people connect the dots.

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

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.

Recommendations on how to talk about community power, including the opportunity because voters are fed up with skyrocketing bills and. for-profit utility greed and want solution, and a recommended message that “community power” is cheaper, faster, more efficient.

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)