The Roadmap: Do Energy Efficiency Programs Work? Lessons for Policymakers

Off The Charts Energy Podcast

You’ll be hard pressed to find a climate agenda that doesn’t include policies to encourage energy efficiency. It makes sense. Reducing energy consumption while lowering households’ electricity bills and greenhouse gas emissions at the same time—a win for everyone, right? While the concept of doing more with less energy is appealing, research is piling up that these policies often don’t deliver as promised and can be expensive ways to reduce carbon emissions. This as the Senate’s infrastructure bill provides an historic investment into one of the central energy efficiency programs researchers have pointed to as underdelivering. Today, I’m talking with Harris Public Policy assistant professor Fiona Burlig about this line of research and ways policymakers could improve the programs. https://epic.uchicago.edu/area-of-focus/making-energy-efficiency-work/