Fostering Equity in Local Clean Energy Policy: Lessons from the 2019 City Clean Energy Scorecard

Note: This report was updated on July 31, 2026, to reflect data from Commonwealth Edison received after publication that showed additional spending on low-income efficiency programs. Resultant updates to the analysis yielded an increase in the overall average spending (of all utilities in the sample) on low-income programs in 2024. This increased the average share of budgets dedicated to programming for low-income populations to 14.1% and reduced the average “equity gap” to 13.8%; each change was less than 1 percentage point. ComEd-specific results were updated throughout. Additionally, the per-household savings data for Baltimore Gas and Electric was corrected, and that resulted in BGE no longer being listed in the top quartile of utilities in that category.

The United States faces interlocking energy challenges: rising home energy bills and gasoline prices; new demand for electricity from data centers and other loads; high greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels. 

Now, a new era of energy efficiency progress in our buildings, transportation, and industry is needed to meet this moment. This wide-ranging study finds a massive opportunity.

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