Understanding Community Benefits Plans at the Department of Energy and Their Potential for Impact

The report examines the DOE's Community Benefits Plan (CBP) process, which requires grant applicants to commit to equitable community and workforce strategies. While the CBP is credited with forcing developers to prioritize equity and job quality, the report identifies significant challenges, including limited DOE capacity, rushed timelines, and growing stakeholder fatigue. Community surveys reveal deep skepticism due to unfulfilled past promises and a preference for environmental quality improvements over clean energy funding. The report recommends that the DOE improve accountability, provide seed funding for commitments, and leverage other federal agencies to support under-resourced community groups.

• The CBP process is designed to leverage federal funding to promote a place-based approach to project development, requiring applicants to address four priority areas: community and labor engagement, job quality and workforce continuity, diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility (DEIA), and the Justice40 Initiative.
• Early evidence suggests CBPs are successfully signaling the importance of equity to the market and forcing developers to integrate community and workforce considerations into their internal planning and engineering processes.
• Workforce development and job creation are currently the strongest components of the CBP process, though integrating these commitments into early-stage technologies remains difficult because workforce requirements for new technologies are often unknown.
• Implementation is hindered by limited DOE capacity, aggressive timelines in Funding Opportunity Announcements (FOAs), and a lack of experienced reviewers, which can lead to superficial or identical plans across different projects.
• Community surveys in New Jersey, Louisiana, and the Navajo Nation show that residents prioritize environmental quality (air and water) and affordable housing over clean energy-specific funding like community solar or EV charging stations.
• A significant majority of surveyed residents expressed distrust toward developers, citing a history of unfulfilled promises and insufficient engagement in previous projects.
• The CBP is a guidance framework rather than a binding legal agreement, although the DOE states that implementation is a condition of continued funding; stakeholders remain uncertain about the actual enforcement mechanisms.
• Other federal agencies, including the EPA, DOT, and HUD, have more established capacity-building and technical assistance programs for community groups that the DOE could leverage to support the CBP process.
• The report recommends that the DOE evaluate developers based on past performance in communities to mitigate risk and reward those with a history of respectful engagement.

APA

Clean Air Task Force (2023). Understanding Community Benefits Plans at the Department of Energy and Their Potential for Impact. https://cdn.catf.us/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/29131153/community-benefits-plans-report.pdf

Chicago

Clean Air Task Force. Understanding Community Benefits Plans at the Department of Energy and Their Potential for Impact. 2023. https://cdn.catf.us/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/29131153/community-benefits-plans-report.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Clean Air Task Force |title=Understanding Community Benefits Plans at the Department of Energy and Their Potential for Impact |date=November 2023 |url=https://cdn.catf.us/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/29131153/community-benefits-plans-report.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{cleanairtaskforce2023understanding, author = {{Clean Air Task Force}}, title = {{Understanding Community Benefits Plans at the Department of Energy and Their Potential for Impact}}, institution = {Clean Air Task Force}, year = {2023}, month = nov, url = {https://cdn.catf.us/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/29131153/community-benefits-plans-report.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }