Implementing Energy Efficiency Programs in Rural America
Channel: eesionline
Date: 2020-06-16

Part 1 of our series "Rural Communities, Climate, and COVID-19 Recovery."
Learn more at: https://www.eesi.org/briefings/view/061620rural


The Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI) held a series of one-hour online briefings about rural communities, climate change, and COVID-19 recovery. The briefings explored the challenges rural communities face, including high energy costs, a struggling agriculture industry, and low investment in resilient infrastructure, as well as the solutions rural communities have developed in the face of these multiple stressors.

In rural communities, families pay on average about 40 percent more for energy compared to their urban counterparts. This briefing explored how more than 60 electric cooperatives and public utilities across the country are using an innovative financing mechanism—on-bill financing—to fund clean energy upgrades for homes and small businesses to reduce these burdensome energy costs. 

Rob Ardis
President and CEO, Santee Electric Cooperative
Skip to presentation: https://youtu.be/XvGi4P3pCZU?t=5m39s

Jay Kirby
Vice President of Public Affairs, Santee Electric Cooperative
Download Slides: https://www.eesi.org/files/James_Kirby_061620.pdf
Skip to presentation: https://youtu.be/XvGi4P3pCZU?t=8m24s

Kate LaTour
Director of Government Relations, National Cooperative Business Association CLUSA International (NCBA-CLUSA)
Download Slides: https://www.eesi.org/files/Kate_LaTour_061620.pdf
Skip to presentation: https://youtu.be/XvGi4P3pCZU?t=19m28s

Question & Answer Session
Skip to presentation: https://youtu.be/XvGi4P3pCZU?t=32m44s

Rob Ardis, Santee Electric Cooperative’s President and CEO, and Jay Kirby, Vice President of Public Affairs, discussed the co-op’s Help My House on-bill financing program in South Carolina. Kate LaTour, Director of Government Relations for the National Cooperative Business Association CLUSA International (NCBA-CLUSA), then described the value of including on-bill financing in any upcoming economic stimulus package to encourage cost-effective energy efficiency and renewable energy projects that will deliver immediate and long-term, self-sustaining benefits.