Total Energy News – August 2024 | Energy Action Network

Total Energy News | August 2024

Greetings,

The EAN 2024 Annual Summit is now less than a month away on September 18th!

We are excited to announce our keynote speaker: Dr. Kim Wolske from the Harris School of Public Policy and the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago. Dr. Wolske will be joining us to talk about: “From Awareness to Action: Behavioral Insights for Increasing Consumer Uptake of Low-Carbon Technologies.”

Now is the time to:

Register for the Summit – You can register just for the September 18th Summit, or save money by registering for both the Summit and the December 3rd post-election gathering. Early bird pricing ends August 30th.
Submit an idea to share from the Summit stage – We want to hear from you if you have an answer to these questions: Is there data or information that needs to be more centrally a part of the energy and climate conversation in Vermont? Is there a policy, program, or approach that the EAN Network needs to know more about? (Note: Please submit your idea by the end of this week!)
Nominate a Network member for an award – Nominate a member or partner for the Anne & Arthur Berndt Award and/or the Leigh Seddon Award. Nominations are due by August 30th.

We look forward to seeing you in September!

Thank you,

Cara, Jared, and Lena

News from the World

Politicians don’t get how popular climate action is. That’s a problem.

The misperception gap widens when officials get more money from fossil fuel interests.

Grist

New York encourages electrification w/ new grid planning process, affordability pilot

Consumers are electrifying buildings and vehicles at a rate that could outpace grid planning processes.

Utility Dive

An optimist’s guide to the EV battery mining challenge

The electric vehicle transition is going to require a lot of mining and materials — but possibly a lot less than everyone thinks.

Canary Media

Data Download

VT’s emissions reduction progress by sector

According to the latest data from the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources, Vermont’s total annual GHG emissions declined 16% between 2005 and 2021 (for reference, the GWSA requires the state to achieve a 26% reduction below 2005 levels by Jan. 1, 2025). The largest share of this overall reduction was from the transportation sector, which was 1.07 million metric tons lower in 2021 than in 2005, a reduction of 25%. Electricity sector emissions decreased by around ⅔ over that time period and have already achieved the 2025 sectoral target.

EAN recently updated our GHG Emissions Dashboard with the latest inventory data. You can explore GHG emissions data for each of the energy sectors, in addition to a new interactive version of the graph above.

Keynote Speaker Profile – Dr. Kim Wolske

EAN is excited to welcome Dr. Wolske as our keynote speaker for the EAN Summit on September 18. She will give a talk titled “From Awareness to Action: Behavioral Insights for Increasing Consumer Uptake of Low-Carbon Technologies.”

Kim Wolske is a research associate professor at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy and a scholar with EPIC, the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago. Her work draws on the fields of environmental, social, and cognitive psychology to examine the behavioral dimensions of energy issues, with the aim of improving the design of public-facing policies and programs. A central focus of her work is on understanding the motivations and barriers associated with consumer adoption of efficient and renewable energy technologies. For the past decade she has partnered with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory to examine drivers of rooftop solar adoption. Dr. Wolske is a past president of the Society for Environmental, Population, and Conservation Psychology and was recently named a fellow of the American Psychological Association.

Events and Opportunities

EAN 2024 Summit

EAN’s 2024 Summit will be September 18th at Bolton Valley Resort, with a second post-election gathering planned for December 3rd in Montpelier.

Learn more and register

EAN Intern Research Lunch and Learn

If you missed the Lunch and Learn presentations by EAN’s 2024 summer interns, Evelyn Seidner and Shea Brams, on August 14th, you can still view the presentations and slides on the EAN website, their papers will be added soon as well.

View

VBSR ClimateReadyVT

ClimateReadyVT is a FREE program helping small businesses in Vermont adapt to our changing climate and prepare for climate-related business disruptions.

Applications due August 23

Learn more

EAN Network Action Teams

EAN Network Action Teams meet regularly. If you are interested in joining meetings of the Weatherization at Scale Coalition, the Climate Workforce Coalition, or other teams, or if you want to learn more about their work, contact Cara: cara@eanvt.org

Learn more

Vermont Climate Council Meetings

All Vermont Climate Council meetings and subcommittee meetings are open to the public, with all details on the Climate Council website.

The Vermont Total Energy Ticker

Out There: Taking stock of Vermont’s emissions

Vermont’s emissions are trending downward, at least slightly… though not fast enough to be in line with the state’s climate commitments.

Vermont Public

While misinformation and early numbers abound, Vermonters still don’t know how much a clean heat standard would cost

The state’s Department of Public Service expects to have an estimate of the proposed program’s cost by the end of August.

VT Digger

Catastrophic flooding forces water rescues in VT after 1-in-1,000-year rainfall event

Emergency responders rescued residents in flooded areas of northeast Vermont after rainfall created a surge of dangerous floodwaters for the second time in a matter of weeks.

CNN