Hey Investors: More Stable Power Bills, Richer Communities, and Increased Shareholder Returns Are Waiting

The briefing highlights the potential of the DOE's Energy Infrastructure Reinvestment (EIR) Program, a component of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), to provide low-interest loans for clean energy projects, workforce development, and grid upgrades. RMI argues that by leveraging EIR funding, IOUs can replace fossil assets earlier than planned, resulting in higher profits for shareholders and more stable power bills for customers. Despite these benefits, RMI's analysis of utility earnings calls indicates that IOUs are not yet discussing the EIR program with investors.

• The Energy Infrastructure Reinvestment (EIR) Program provides up to $250 billion in low-interest loans for projects that reduce emissions-intensity, including workforce development, environmental remediation, and grid upgrades, with a limited window of three-and-a-half years for issuance.
• A hypothetical model of a mid-size IOU with a $5 billion rate base demonstrates that using EIR funding to accelerate the replacement of a 1 GW fossil asset with a 1.4 GW solar asset and 760 MW of storage in 2025 (rather than 2031) can increase earnings by more than 13 percent.
• Utilizing EIR financing allows IOUs to protect customers from rate increases and fuel cost volatility while simultaneously increasing profits for shareholders compared to baseline scenarios without such financing.
• RMI's review of utility earnings calls found that while investor-owned utilities are considering the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) in their planning, there have been no mentions of utilizing the EIR program specifically.

APA

RMI (2023). Hey Investors: More Stable Power Bills, Richer Communities, and Increased Shareholder Returns Are Waiting. https://rmi.org/resources/hey-investors-more-stable-power-bills-richer-communities-and-increased-shareholder-returns-are-waiting/

Chicago

RMI. Hey Investors: More Stable Power Bills, Richer Communities, and Increased Shareholder Returns Are Waiting. 2023. https://rmi.org/resources/hey-investors-more-stable-power-bills-richer-communities-and-increased-shareholder-returns-are-waiting/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=RMI |title=Hey Investors: More Stable Power Bills, Richer Communities, and Increased Shareholder Returns Are Waiting |date=5 June 2023 |url=https://rmi.org/resources/hey-investors-more-stable-power-bills-richer-communities-and-increased-shareholder-returns-are-waiting/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{rmi2023hey, author = {{RMI}}, title = {{Hey Investors: More Stable Power Bills, Richer Communities, and Increased Shareholder Returns Are Waiting}}, institution = {RMI}, year = {2023}, month = jun, url = {https://rmi.org/resources/hey-investors-more-stable-power-bills-richer-communities-and-increased-shareholder-returns-are-waiting/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }