Where does climate and energy policy go from here? In the new podcast miniseries The Roadmap, The Atlantic‘s Rob Meyer joins EPIC scholars to take a deep dive into timely climate and energy issues and the evidence behind needed policy changes, as described in the U.S. Energy & Climate Roadmap.
In the fifth and final episode of the series, Rob digs into the topic of energy efficiency programs, which tend to be popular items for climate policy. Reducing energy consumption while lowering households’ electricity bills and greenhouse gas emissions looks like a win for everyone. 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 a historic investment into one of the central energy efficiency programs researchers have pointed to as underdelivering—the Weatherization Assistance Program. Rob talks with Harris Public Policy assistant professor Fiona Burlig about the line of research and ways policymakers could improve energy efficiency programs.