Power Play: People-Powered Climate & Energy Actions

The Brown University Climate & Development Lab, Climable, and Synapse Energy Economics are pleased to share Power Play: Actions for New England’s Equitable Energy Transition, a report that summarizes our findings from 12 workshops conducted throughout the region in 2022. The shorter companion guide is entitled Power Play Playbook: Actions for New England’s Equitable Energy Transition. The playbook is meant to serve as a plain language version that summarizes the actions discussed in detail in the main report. Both versions review themes that emerged at the workshops where attendees explored ideas for how to help each state meet its climate goals.

For a snappier summary, check out @climable, @ClimateDevLab, @SynapseEnergy, and @TimmonsRoberts on Twitter and other social media platforms, where we used the hashtag #PowerPlayNE.

For more context about this study, please see the materials and graphics posted below.

Click on the image above for the playbook!

Click on the image above for the full report!

Background and History

Brown University’s Climate and Development Lab, Climable, and Synapse Energy Economics partnered to conduct a study on climate action and public utilities in each of the New England states. We looked for insights regarding the climate actions of the New England utilities, the regulatory structures that the public utility commissions (PUCs) have in place to mitigate climate change, and the opportunities and challenges for implementing lasting climate solutions. The team facilitated stakeholder workshops in each New England state to inform a final report that identifies policies and other barriers to climate progress in New England. The report concludes with a list of recommendations for addressing barriers and creating equitable and just progress on climate action. The report is available above.

This work was informed by preliminary research our project team conducted in 2022. The stakeholder events we held following the publication of this report were informed by our findings, which you can read in the report linked to the image.

If you have an interest in having someone from the project team present at an event regarding our findings, please contact Climable at info@climable.org. We do hope that the resources we create are informative and helpful in making meaningful and equitable progress on climate action in New England and beyond!

Description of the Stakeholder Workshops and Participants

Brown University, Climable, and Synapse conducted 12 stakeholder workshops from March to November 2022. The first six were held in person, one in each of the six New England states. The second six were held virtually. Participants included Public Utility Commissioners and staff, local nonprofits, environmental justice representatives, and representatives from other regulatory agencies, including governor’s offices, state energy offices, and water management offices. We acknowledge that the structure and content provided at the stakeholder workshops and the knowledge and experiences of participants play a role in the outcomes and ideas generated. Considering this truth, we crafted these workshops with great consideration and care and provide transparent and complete documentation of our approach in this section.

To provide participants with background knowledge to enable meaningful participation in the in-person workshops, Brown University and Synapse presented information on the purpose of the project and an overview of the findings from the background report. Participants provided updates based on more detailed in-state expertise and knowledge, and some asked clarifying questions that were answered by the presenters or participants. Two breakout sessions followed, where participants discussed questions in moderated small groups of 5 to 8 individuals. At the in-person workshops, the first breakout session was a brainstorming of ideas in response to the following two questions:

In addition to what is already underway, what else can be done to meet your state’s climate goals? How does equity fit in with these ideas?
What policies and programs need to be in place to support the development of equitable utility regulation and climate action in your state?

A lead from each breakout group reported back on the ideas provided, and the ideas from all groups were merged into a list of roughly 10 big ideas that were posted on a presentation slide for all groups to view and reflect on. The second breakout session involved idea prioritization and a force field analysis. In the second breakout session, participants selected one or two of the ideas from the first breakout session to focus on. For each idea, participants identified and discussed driving and opposing forces by responding to the questions below:

Driving Forces: Why do we need to make these changes? Who is requesting this change and why?
Opposing Forces: What factors will affect this moving forward? Who will oppose this?

Participants wrote their ideas on sticky notes and placed them on either the driving or opposing side of a poster board at each group’s table. A lead from each breakout group reported back on the discussion.

At the virtual workshops, to provide participants with background knowledge to enable meaningful participation, Brown University and Synapse presented information on the purpose of the project and an overview of the priority ideas and actions from that state’s previous in-person workshop. Similar to the first workshop, two discussion sessions followed, where participants weighed in on questions in moderated small groups of 5 to 8 individuals. In the first session, participants referred to a priority actions table as they worked together to respond to the following question: What steps should the PUC take to address the actions equitably? Discuss the main barriers to these priorities progressing. A lead from each group reported back on the discussion.

In the second discussion session, participants referred to the same priority actions table when considering the following questions: How can stakeholders outside of the PUC be empowered to provide meaningful engagement and leadership on these actions? What support do those stakeholders need? How can stakeholders collaborate to provide that support? Participants worked independently to respond to these questions and used an online tool to document their input using sticky notes. A lead from each group reported back on the discussion. After all workshops, notes were disseminated to all participants, and follow-up calls were conducted with participants who volunteered to provide additional resources and thoughts. All presentations, handouts, and notes are available below.