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The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) of 2022 provides significant tax credits and financing to lower the cost of clean electricity and facilitate the retirement of fossil fuel infrastructure. Independent modeling suggests the IRA could make 73% to 76% clean electricity the lowest-cost pathway for the U.S. by 2030, potentially reducing electricity sector GHG emissions by 67% to 78% from 2005 levels. However, the report argues that realizing these benefits requires proactive state-level policy, including updated procurement assumptions by Public Utility Commissions, increased clean electricity standards from legislators, and strategic coordination by governors to address transmission and supply-chain constraints.

This guide outlines a five-step process for US homeowners to transition to all-electric, energy-efficient homes. It emphasizes the importance of setting personal goals, conducting energy assessments, hiring reputable contractors, and utilizing financial incentives provided by the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). The recommended technical path includes improving insulation and sealing, installing electric heat pumps for heating, cooling, and hot water, and switching to induction stoves.

The document outlines how U.S. local governments can leverage federal incentives, such as those in the Inflation Reduction Act, to advance community solar for low- and moderate-income (LMI) residents. It details specific actions including proactive community engagement, advocacy for state-level enabling legislation, providing direct financial subsidies, and reducing developer risks by acting as anchor subscribers or providing public land. The guide highlights various municipal examples from cities like Denver, Pueblo, and Anaheim to demonstrate how to integrate job training, bill discounts, and loan funds into solar initiatives.

The report finds that strong methane standards in the U.S. oil and gas sector would create significant employment without negatively impacting drilling activity. The CATF 65% plan is projected to create nearly 220,000 total jobs (including 64,000 direct jobs), while the EPA proposal would create 92,000 total jobs (including 27,000 direct jobs). These jobs span manufacturing, installation, and ongoing operations and maintenance, with a significant portion being non-offshorable and potentially unionized.

The analysis finds that 236 counties in 21 US states face cancer risks exceeding the EPA's one-in-a-million threshold due to oil and gas pollution, affecting nearly 14 million people. The report identifies benzene, formaldehyde, and acetaldehyde as the primary drivers of this risk, accounting for 96% of the estimated cancer risk. It highlights that the population living in high-risk counties increased from 9 million in 2016 to 14 million in 2022, primarily due to industry growth. The report argues that implementing proven methane-reduction technologies, such as leak detection and repair and the replacement of gas-driven pneumatic equipment, would also significantly reduce toxic hazardous air pollution.

The policy brief examines the impact of high-severity wildfires on the U.S. forest carbon sink, noting that forests in several Western states have become net carbon emitters. It advocates for scaling up 'fuel load treatments'—such as prescribed burns and mechanical removal of biomass—to mitigate wildfire risk and suggests developing markets for thinned biomass (e.g., biochar, green hydrogen) to fund these efforts and reduce emissions. The brief calls for federal policy support via the 2023 Farm Bill to increase research, support rural and Tribal communities, and incentivize innovative wood products.

The report details a corporate campaign to implement municipal preemption laws that block local governments from accessing courts to recover climate-related damages. It identifies a 'triumvirate' of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, ALEC, and NAM as the primary architects of this strategy, drawing parallels to previous industry efforts to avoid liability in the tobacco and opioid sectors. The document outlines specific legislative tactics used to stifle litigation and provides a framework for municipal leaders to recognize and repeal such preemption laws, while suggesting proactive legislative measures to protect local legal autonomy.

Climate Central analysis reveals that 83% of 241 analyzed U.S. cities saw an increase in summer stagnant days between 1973 and 2021, with a strong positive correlation between these events and rising summer high temperatures. Annual stagnation has also increased in 81% of these cities, with hotspots in Southern Texas and coastal California. These trends are expected to worsen with climate change, potentially adding up to 40 more stagnant days per year by late-century, which traps pollutants and disproportionately affects communities of color due to historical housing policies.

Heat pumps are all-electric appliances that move heat rather than generating it, allowing them to provide both heating and cooling with high efficiency. They are available as air-source or ground-source systems and can be ducted or ductless. While upfront costs can be a barrier, they offer long-term savings over gas or electric resistance furnaces and eliminate indoor fossil fuel combustion risks. Recent technological advances have made them viable in cold climates, and they are increasingly integrated into climate action plans to improve energy security and public health.

The report argues that traditional US public utilities commission (PUC) processes are too slow and restrictive to meet urgent decarbonization and equity mandates. It recommends four primary reforms: setting clear proceeding objectives, expanding stakeholder roles in solution development, reducing information asymmetry by unlocking utility data, and initiating new inclusive processes such as regulatory sandboxes and updated benefit-cost analysis frameworks.

The document outlines a pathway to reduce U.S. oil and gas methane emissions by 65% using mature technologies and standards already employed in states like Colorado and New Mexico. It advocates for strengthening EPA regulations to include frequent leak detection and repair (LDAR) and a total ban on routine flaring. Additionally, it supports the Build Back Better Act's Methane Emissions Reduction Program (MERP) as a complementary financial incentive. The author asserts that these measures would save society $13 billion annually by 2025, prevent millions of tons of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) from entering the atmosphere, and create approximately 220,000 total jobs without negatively impacting drilling activity.

The Clean Air Task Force (CATF) outlines four primary criteria for successful clean hydrogen hubs: minimizing greenhouse gas intensity across the production value chain, prioritizing hard-to-abate end-use sectors, committing to environmental justice and community engagement, and delivering immediate local environmental benefits. These recommendations are directed at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) following the authorization of $8 billion under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021 to establish at least four regional hubs.

RMI outlines five strategic steps for US electric utilities to foster equitable community engagement: identifying underserved populations using measurable criteria, compensating community participants for their expertise, ensuring linguistic and cultural accessibility in outreach, partnering with communities for program design and wealth building, and co-creating metrics to track progress.

The Climate Central Temperature Attribution System (CC-TAS) Version 1.0 operationalizes a multi-method framework to attribute temperature events to anthropogenic climate change. It utilizes two empirical methods (median-scaling and quantile-scaling) and a model-based method using CMIP6 simulations. To improve upon previous frameworks, CC-TAS incorporates high-resolution CFS reanalysis temperatures, ERA5 reanalysis for scale factors, and skew-normal parameterized distributions. The system introduces the 'occurrence ratio' (OR) as a primary metric to assess both warm and cold events, which is then converted into a conservative categorical 'Climate Shift Index' (CSI) for public mapping, primarily focusing on the contiguous United States.

The Institute for Economic Justice evaluates the draft South African Climate Change Bill against the 2022 IPCC WGII report. While the Bill aligns with IPCC definitions of adaptation and vulnerability and acknowledges the risks of extreme weather, the author finds it insufficient in several areas. Key gaps include the lack of a formal climate emergency declaration, missing definitions for 'resilience' and 'exposure', insufficient transparency and accountability mechanisms, and a lack of specific timeframes and responsible parties for implementation. The document argues that the Bill must better integrate socio-economic rights and traditional knowledge to effectively protect vulnerable groups, including women, youth, and rural communities.

Wildfires in the western United States are increasing in size and severity due to climate change and historical fire suppression, posing significant risks to water resources. High-severity fires destroy vegetation and alter soil chemistry, leading to increased streamflow, flooding, and the contamination of drinking water with sediments, toxins, and carcinogens. The document advocates for a combination of emissions reductions, active forest management—including prescribed and Indigenous cultural burns—and investments in climate-resilient water infrastructure to mitigate these threats.

The report documents a cumulative environmental burden in North Denver and Commerce City, where industrial zoning and high-volume transportation infrastructure lead to significant pollution and health risks. Key findings include widespread EPA violations among local facilities, high levels of PM2.5 emissions from diesel traffic near schools, and systemic data gaps regarding freight rail and business impacts. The authors argue that while North Denver provides essential energy, goods, and waste services for the broader Denver Metro area, the local community bears the health costs, including higher rates of asthma and cancer risks.

The report details how North Denver serves as a critical hub for energy, goods production, and transport for the wider region while its residents bear the cumulative health and environmental costs. It identifies widespread EPA violations among local facilities and highlights significant data gaps that hinder community oversight.

Holy Cross Energy's Power+ program provides residential customers in Colorado with distributed battery storage through a tariff-based on-bill financing model. By leveraging USDA loan capital, the program eliminates upfront costs for participants and allows the utility to manage peak demand and integrate more renewable energy. The program aims to support the utility's goals of 100 percent renewable energy by 2030 and net-zero emissions by 2035, while providing homeowners with backup power during climate-driven outages.

The guide outlines five strategies for cities to leverage utility franchise agreement renegotiations: incorporating climate strategies, planning for equity, investing in resilient infrastructure, embracing collaboration, and understanding negotiation leverage. It highlights specific examples, such as San Diego's climate equity fund and Colorado's powerline undergrounding, to demonstrate how cities can align utility operations with community-wide clean energy goals.