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This guide by RMI outlines ten strategies for United States cities to advance inclusive electric mobility, focusing on affordability and accessibility for residents without private vehicles or home charging. It provides specific examples of municipal policies, from building code mandates for EV-readiness in Arizona to zero-emission delivery zones in California, to help cities navigate budget constraints and reduced federal funding.

This report provides a framework for conducting a Gas System Analysis (GSA) to help regulators and decision-makers evaluate the prudence of gas utility infrastructure investments, reduce consumer costs, and align utility operations with climate and public health goals.

This Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI) briefing examines the role of rail in the United States transportation sector, focusing on its potential for decarbonization and the impact of federal infrastructure investments ahead of the next surface transportation reauthorization bill.

This briefing by RMI outlines a four-step framework for utilities and regulators to integrate physical and transition climate risks into long-term planning to ensure grid reliability and affordability. It argues that current utility planning often silos climate risk or ignores transition risks, leading to higher costs for ratepayers, particularly in disadvantaged communities.

RMI analysis indicates that Illinois could achieve significant household cost savings, pollution reduction, and public health improvements by adopting three clean transportation strategies: vehicle electrification standards, climate-driven agency planning, and renewed investments in state transit systems.

This report by RMI outlines a strategic framework—focused on competitiveness, constraints, and coordination—to accelerate energy transition investment in the Great Lakes region. It argues that while the region possesses significant industrial legacies and innovation assets, it faces structural hurdles such as slow population growth, labor shortages, and a lack of cohesive industrial strategies. The document proposes that states move beyond simple investment attraction toward coordinated industrial policies, leveraging federal incentives from the IRA, IIJA, and CHIPS Act to build regional clusters in sectors like EV batteries, low-carbon steel, and sustainable fuels.

This policy brief by RMI examines the potential for the Great Lakes region of the United States to become a globally competitive hub for Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF). It analyzes the region's strengths in feedstock availability, existing ethanol infrastructure, and logistics, while identifying a significant gap in coordinated state-level industrial policy to support the SAF value chain.

This briefing by RMI analyzes the potential for the Great Lakes region to lead the electric vehicle (EV) and battery supply chain. While the region possesses historical automotive strengths and significant R&D capacity, it faces competition from the 'Battery Belt' in the Deep South and gaps in state-level industrial policies. The document outlines the four stages of the supply chain—upstream, midstream, downstream, and reuse/recycling—and provides a gap analysis of regional policies compared to federal initiatives, urging Great Lakes states to coordinate on strategic coordination, production incentives, and end-of-life regulations to maintain competitiveness.

This guide by the World Resources Institute outlines five strategies for U.S. local governments to equitably expand electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure, aiming to prevent 'charging deserts' in historically disadvantaged, rural, and low-income communities.

This report by RMI analyzes the economic and technical feasibility of electrifying mid-sized office buildings (approximately 50,000 square feet) that utilize packaged rooftop units (RTUs). The study demonstrates that cost-effective electrification retrofits exist across diverse US cities when tailored to regional climate conditions and gas utility rates, often requiring a combination of heat pumps, efficiency upgrades, and on-site solar.

This guide from RMI explains how local governments can use Community Project Funding (CPF)—a form of discretionary spending available to members of Congress—to finance innovative clean energy and climate resilience projects that might not fit the strict criteria of traditional federal grants.

This guide by RMI provides strategic advice for municipalities to renegotiate franchise agreements with electric and gas utilities to advance climate, equity, and resilience goals. It emphasizes moving beyond narrow legal scopes to incorporate specific climate actions, equitable funding, and infrastructure resilience, while highlighting the importance of overcoming informational asymmetries during negotiations.

RMI argues that continued high spending on US gas distribution infrastructure is counterproductive to climate goals and risks creating stranded assets. The document advocates for a shift toward electrification and energy efficiency for residential and commercial buildings, while limiting gas infrastructure spending to targeted safety needs and high-value industrial applications.

This policy brief argues that U.S. economic recovery efforts following COVID-19 must prioritize low-carbon investments and a 'fair transition' for fossil fuel workers to avoid locking in polluting infrastructure and to mitigate the economic disruption caused by decarbonization and automation.

This briefing introduces the concept of "hours-of-safety" to measure how long a home can maintain a comfortable indoor temperature during power outages caused by extreme weather. It argues that improving building envelopes through insulation and air leakage reduction can increase passive survivability and save lives, particularly for vulnerable populations.

This guide, published by RMI and the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA), provides a comprehensive framework for improving urban freight efficiency. It identifies key performance indicators (KPIs) to monitor logistics performance, details best practices for reducing congestion and emissions, and offers a policy workbook for municipal authorities to implement data-driven planning and stakeholder engagement.

This report by the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) analyzes the incremental costs of building zero-energy (ZE) and zero-energy ready (ZER) single-family homes in the United States. It argues that the cost premiums for these homes are modest and often fall below consumer willingness-to-pay and long-term savings thresholds, suggesting that outdated perceptions of high costs are a primary barrier to market penetration.

The Carbon-Free Regions Handbook: Mobility is a guide by RMI that outlines strategic actions for regional governments to reduce the carbon intensity of transportation, which currently accounts for 14% of global greenhouse gas emissions.

This briefing by RMI argues that revitalizing old industrial sites using net-zero energy (NZE) design can drive urban economic development, improve resident quality of life, and reduce citywide carbon emissions. It highlights the advantages of 'district scale' redevelopment and provides several US-based examples of NZE projects transforming former manufacturing and steel sites into sustainable mixed-use communities.

The Carbon-Free City Handbook: Electricity is a guide by RMI that outlines strategies for cities to transition to carbon-free renewable energy. It emphasizes a two-step process: committing to 100 percent renewable energy targets and implementing comprehensive action plans. The document details four specific actions: upgrading to smart LED streetlighting, creating electric districts by removing fossil-fuel infrastructure, installing municipal solar PV, and securing renewable energy supplies through mechanisms like power purchase agreements.