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The LA100 Equity Strategies project provides community-guided, data-driven strategies for increasing equity in LA’s transition to clean energy. In November 2023, a new report, the LA100 Equity Strategies Project, was released that focuses on the energy justice perspectives of a city the size of LA making the clean energy transition. 

RASEI Fellow Kate Anderson was one of the lead authors of this report. Developed over two years of community engagement, modeling, and analysis,  project outlines strategic, community-driven approaches that can help that dream become a reality for Los Angeles.

The current energy system is inequitable. LA100 Equity Strategies provides building blocks for LADWP to address challenges and chart a course to more equitable outcomes.

When NREL released its  in 2021, data showed that the city could reach its 100% clean energy goals as soon as 2035—but the study also revealed that improving equity in the clean energy transition would require intentionally designed policies and programs.

Following the release of the LA100 study, City leaders committed LADWP to achieve 100% carbon-free energy by 2035 in an equitable way, with minimal adverse impact on ratepayers. The City's pledge to produce electricity without generating harmful greenhouse gas emissions specifically prioritizes communities most impacted by environmental harm and aims to shift energy benefits to renters at equitable rates.

Check out the links to find out more about the report, and the team behind the research. 

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This book, titled “Clean Energy Innovators: NREL People Working to Change the World”, features the work of a number of RASEI Fellows. Written by Ernie Tucker, and published in June of 2022, it adopts a focus on the human-interest aspect of the critical work being done at NREL.

Collecting together stories and snapshots that were spread across newspapers and magazines, and digging deeper into profiles of different NREL members, this book puts together a collection of perspectives. This isn’t a history or NREL, instead it is insights and thoughts from the people who built NREL. 

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This essay that was co-authored by RASEI Director Seth Marder, along with Tim Lieuwen (Executive Director of the Strategic Energy Institute at the Georgia Institute of Technology), and Chaouki Abdallah (Executive Vice President for Research at the Georgia Institute of Technology), was part of a special issue entitled "The Next 75 Years of Science Policy", supported by The Kavli Foundation.

The essay describes a future where Research universities have reprioritized their mission and are guided by a vision that they are positioned as partnership builders, connecting local communities, governments, industry, and others. Acting as hub to convene though leaders facilitiates planning and responding to large, complex societal challenges. 

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Download the Report

Modeling has shown that if the world stops burning fossil fuels, we can avoid the worst impacts of climate change. Transitioning our energy system from fossil fuels to non-carbon energy sources provides a host of benefits beyond addressing climate change.

Reductions in air pollution, improved social equity, increasing the number of good-paying jobs and boosting the economy are all possible. This report, co-authored by RASEI Fellows Jeff Logan and Chuck Kutscher, explores what this transition looks like, the benefits and opportunities of making this change, and mechanisms that can be used to accelerate this global transformation.

The executive summary, 15 pages long, provides a great introduction to the challenges, solutions, and opportunities to this complex and crucial problem. 

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In 2007, RASEI Faculty Paul Komor shared in the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Al Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) “for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change." The IPCC consists of a large number of scientists and researchers – including Paul, who co- authored a chapter on “Mitigation Options for Human Settlements” in the IPCC’s Second Assessment Report. For his work with the IPCC, Paul was named a contributor to the Nobel Peace Prize.

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