These priorities were collaboratively drafted by Coalition partners and were updated through consensus vote at our January 2023 Monthly Coalition Meeting.
This is a living set of priorities that will be regularly updated based on Coalition input to the Governance Working Group.
Equity
- Integrate equity, affordability, health, and racial justice into all building decarbonization strategies developed by the Coalition from the very beginning through transparent, inclusive, bottom-up strategy-making to decolonize and de-center white supremacy culture with care that prioritizes those who historically and/or currently experience oppression
- Be inclusive in setting Coalition strategy and priorities as well as Coalition funding priorities
- Co-create or center marginalized community leadership and priorities
Engagement, Education, and Outreach
- Listen to communities to co-create equal footing in educational conversations, striving for empowered decision-making
- Engage communities, partners, and policymakers on the public health and economic value of building decarbonization as well as on policy opportunities and strategy development to advance building decarbonization at the state and local levels, including first nations
- Inspire public and private sector stakeholders to embrace building electrification including cooking and space and water heating
- Create opportunities for peer learning from other successful building decarbonization campaigns
- Educate and mobilize health professionals to advocate for decarbonization of the healthcare industry and embed decarbonization education into their patient and community health practices
Healthy, Affordable, and Energy Efficient Housing
- Reduce energy burden through building decarbonization and energy efficiency, prioritizing the economic and health benefit from the resident’s perspective
- Increase the ability to access (including but not limited to the qualification process) naturally occurring and regulated affordable housing and the availability (e.g. housing stock) of naturally occurring and regulated affordable housing that is healthy, carbon-free, and energy efficient
- Ensure funding is available to retrofit low-income homes with electric appliances for cooking and space and water heating
Utility Engagement
- Engage electric and dual-fuel utilities (investor-owned, municipal, rural electric co-ops) on advancing building electrification
- Create greater financial equity for communities historically and currently experiencing disproportionately intensive oppression
- Advocate for utility programs, practices, and investments that retire fossil investments, prioritize diverse workforce, advance beneficial electrification, and make energy affordable, reliable, and accessible, and conduct health impact assessments in energy planning processes
Policy (including local and legislative policy as well as regulatory and administrative action)
- Advance funding and financing solutions to facilitate building decarbonization – particularly for low-income residents facing disproportionate health and cost burden– for electrification, code updates, and building performance compliance (e.g. stopgap funds for weatherization and electrification updates/upgrades, sustainable revolving loan funds etc.)
- e.g. stopgap funds for weatherization and electrification updates/upgrades, sustainable revolving loan funds etc.
- Stop fossil fuel expansion and stop ‘bans on gas bans’ bills
- Advance ambitious model building codes and stretch codes, where possible, and stop ‘building code preemption’ bills
- Advance ambitious building performance standards (BPS), where possible, and ensure that compliance with building performance standards is fully funded for affordable multifamily properties and appropriate accommodations are included for Low-Income Housing Tax Credit properties and other deed-restricted properties
- Engage in regulatory work to advance energy affordability, ‘Future of Gas’ dockets, pilot and permanent programs, and rate design that will enable equitable and beneficial building electrification and protect low-income customers as customers transition off the existing natural gas infrastructure system
- Engage in state and local Qualified Allocation Plan (QAP) processes to advocate for affordable building standards that are energy efficient, healthy, and carbon-free
- Allow electrification in state mandated energy efficiency programs/goals for utilities and revise energy efficiency programs to better incorporate beneficial electrification
- Coordinate building decarbonization efforts in the Midwest with federal action.
- Ensure that local and state climate plans recognize and prioritize healthy, decarbonized housing
Workforce/Labor
- Advance green workforce development and job creation in energy efficiency, construction, contracting, and electrification, especially at the community level, especially taking advantage of new and coming investments from the Federal level
- Promote a just workforce transition, prioritizing communities historically left out of clean energy jobs and also prioritizing the transition of fossil workforce (e.g. eliminating bond enforcement (access to credit barriers for construction))
- Secure community benefit agreements to ensure equitable environmentally sound “green” workforce and labor commitments
- Educate and equip communities to effectively advocate and lead their economic and workforce development
Market Transformation
- Advance new technologies and infrastructure to facilitate building decarbonization (e.g. heat pumps, ground-source district energy systems)
- Advance and/or highlight demonstration projects that communicate the energy, carbon, and health values of decarbonization
Power Grid
- Support energy-efficient electrification measures and rate design that will reduce demand on the grid
- Support grid modernization, transmission expansion, and energy storage solutions to facilitate electrification
- Advance community ownership of distributed energy grid infrastructure