Search Climate Insights Directory

This report provides a resource adequacy toolkit for regulators in the Western United States to manage the risk of electricity supply shortfalls during the transition to a low-carbon grid.

RMI reports that expanding regional electricity transmission in the Western US is a 'win-win' economic opportunity. It finds that energy export states (Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, Wyoming) could increase their market access from $3 billion to $40 billion per year by 2050 with better transmission, while states with clean energy standards could reduce costs by over 30% through expansive regional planning.

This guide by RMI provides a framework for updating electricity resource procurement processes for vertically integrated utilities in the US. It advocates for 'all-source', 'objective-aligned', and 'least-regrets' procurement to optimize the deployment of clean energy and distributed energy resources (DERs) during a period of significant projected investment.

This report argues that establishing a Regional Transmission Organization (RTO) in the Southeast U.S. could reduce electricity costs by 29% and emissions by 37% by 2040. It recommends a combination of full market restructuring, the adoption of all-source procurement, and the integration of distributed energy resources to achieve these goals. The authors also emphasize the need for 'just transition' policies to support coal-impacted communities by leveraging the fact that most coal plants have cheaper renewable alternatives within 35 miles.

This fact sheet explains how climate change—specifically rising temperatures and earlier snowmelt—is driving more frequent and longer-lasting large wildfires in the Western United States, with risks expected to grow as global temperatures rise.