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March 18, 2025
Since 1984, EESI has worked on a wide range of climate change topics, from pedestrian-friendly cities to coastal community resilience to energy efficiency in buildings to the proper disposal of nuclear waste.
EESI was ahead of the curve when it came to recognizing the threat climate change posed. In 1988, EESI declared that “the emergence of the global warming problem creates an imperative for action that cannot be ignored” and urged policymakers to examine all energy policy options through a comprehensive “greenhouse lens” as part of their decision-making.
Education and Outreach
EESI is proud to be a trusted source of credible, nonpartisan, science-based information about energy and environmental topics and climate change solutions. Our outreach tools include our website, first launched in 1999 and revamped in 2008 and 2014. The user-friendly site includes a powerful search interface and makes it easy to watch briefing livestreams and recordings and find our popular fact sheets. Briefing recordings and other videos can also be found on our YouTube channel, which was launched in 2010.
EESI has launched (and retired) multiple newsletters over the years. Standouts include Climate Change News, a weekly publication sent to all Congressional offices, which in 2019 evolved into Climate Change Solutions, our biweekly flagship newsletter that communicates key happenings in environmental science and policy. EESI Impact, which replaced EESI Update in 2020, shares donor-oriented news about our work six times a year. The first episode of our podcast, The Climate Conversation, was released in 2020.
In 2013, EESI teamed up with the U.S. Department of Energy to release Energy 101, a model framework for a college-level introduction to sustainable energy. And in 2021, EESI launched the Future Climate Leaders Scholarship as part of EESI's commitment to advance diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice by making up to three awards to undergraduate students pursuing studies relevant to climate policy at historically-Black colleges and universities. EESI also hosts up to 10 college students each year as paid interns to provide emerging climate policy experts and advocates with professional experience in Washington, D.C.
EESI has always showcased the benefits of energy efficiency and renewable energy. Within a few weeks of joining EESI in 2019, President Daniel Bresette testified before the Senate and emphasized that “energy efficiency provides the easiest source of measurable emissions reductions. It is the secret weapon against climate change.” Much earlier in our history, EESI looked at obstacles to greater private-sector investments in “shared energy savings” deals with the federal government. This led us to encourage enactment of a provision in the Omnibus Reconciliation Bill of 1985 allowing private companies to pay for energy efficiency improvements in federal buildings and keep some of the resulting savings.
EESI helped improve the perception of renewable energy on Capitol Hill when we organized EARTHTECH 90, a major environmental technology fair on the National Mall. More than 95 companies, nonprofits, and federal agencies showcased sustainable solutions ranging from plastic recycling to solar box cookers, and from high-efficiency motors to a full-scale wind turbine. About 40,000 visitors attended the 1990 fair, which was co-chaired by Sens. John Heinz III (R-Pa.) and Al Gore (D-Tenn.).
In 1996, we helped create the House Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Caucus, which continues to disseminate information on renewable energy technologies and their benefits to Congressional offices. The following year, we co-launched the Congressional Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency EXPO and Policy Forum, to showcase innovative clean technologies to Congress. The EXPO has become a fixture of the Congressional calendar and shown generations of members that renewables can meet our nation’s energy needs sustainably.
EESI has always prioritized rural issues in our Congressional education and advocated for using plants for energy and as a replacement for plastic. EESI participated in the Clinton Administration’s bioenergy initiative and roundtable in 1999, and then-Executive Director Carol Werner attended the White House signing ceremony for President Clinton’s Executive Order on Developing and Promoting Biobased Products and Bioenergy. EESI encouraged the inclusion of the Forest Biomass for Energy Program, the Biomass Crop Assistance Program, and the Community Wood Energy Program in the 2008 Farm Bill.
EESI released a major white paper, Revitalizing the Rural Economy Through Renewable Energy Development, that included many recommendations that were included in the new Energy Title in the 2002 Farm Bill. Twelve years later, we spearheaded the effort to include the Rural Energy Savings Program (RESP) in the 2014 Farm Bill’s Energy Title to expand on-bill financing by providing rural electric cooperatives and other eligible borrowers with zero-interest loans to launch energy efficiency and clean energy programs.
The Farm Bill includes many conservation provisions, including several pertaining to water quality, which was one of EESI’s earliest areas of focus. In 1987, EESI held a major conference on groundwater protection, which was attended by more than 250 members of Congress, Congressional staff, and others, and watched by thousands more on C-SPAN.
Since 2010, EESI has been helping rural electric cooperatives launch on-bill financing programs, which allow households and small businesses to borrow money for energy efficiency and renewable energy improvements and repay the loans through their electric bills.
We started our on-bill financing work by helping rural electric cooperatives in South Carolina launch a pilot program, Help My House, which saved participants an average of $400 per year. With leadership from Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), Congress included language creating a nationwide on-bill financing program for cooperatives in the 2012 Farm Bill. The U.S. Department of Agriculture launched the energy efficiency loan program for rural communities in 2013. Citing the success of the "Help My House" pilot, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack announced the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Loan Program to support scaled-up versions of the South Carolina pilot across the country.
EESI began to offer technical assistance to help rural electric cooperatives and other utilities develop on-bill financing programs, including by publishing a comprehensive online how-to guide and articles showcasing successful efforts. Over the past 14 years, EESI has helped develop on-bill financing programs in Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Vermont, Virginia, and Washington. Most recently, in May 2024, we helped the Colorado Clean Energy Fund and Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association launch the Electrify and Save on-bill financing program, which received a $75 million RESP loan—the largest ever.
EESI has also promoted beneficial electrification, or the switch from fossil fuels to electricity in a way that cuts costs and reduces overall emissions, by publishing a major report, Equitable Beneficial Electrification for Rural Electric Cooperatives, in 2019, and launching the Beneficial Electrification Toolkit, a first-of-its-kind, one-stop-shop-style online resource to help rural utilities develop accessible and inclusive programs for their customers.
EESI was one of the first environmental nonprofits to focus on the need for resilience and adaptation because of how communities are affected by climate change, and to warn about the national security impacts of climate change.
In 2018, we played an active role in the passage of the Disaster Recovery Reform Act, which makes it easier for communities to prepare for disasters, and to build back better after they have been struck.
Two years later, we released a comprehensive capstone report, A Resilient Future for Coastal Communities, with 30 policy recommendations for Congress and policymakers. The report was based on the findings of 16 of our Congressional briefings and it informed two related fact sheets, Nature as Resilient Infrastructure and Federal Resources for Nature-Based Solutions to Climate Change.
EESI has repeatedly emphasized the national security impacts of climate change through briefings and white papers, such as The National Security Impacts of Climate Change. We have also advocated for increased climate aid to developing countries, and we contributed to the enactment of the first-ever climate provision in the 2017 National Defense Authorization Act that identified climate change as a “direct threat” to national security and directed the Defense Department to prepare for its impacts on vulnerable bases.
In 2016, we highlighted the seminal Paris Climate Agreement, with multiple press releases and a well-attended Congressional briefing that examined the lead-up to the UN climate summit in Paris, its outcome, and next steps. To promote domestic understanding of international climate actions, EESI also covered the Montreal Protocol amendment to phase out hydrofluorocarbons, which are potent greenhouse gases.
EESI reinvigorated and expanded our coverage of UN climate summits for a Congressional audience with an annual series of briefings and a daily newsletter published during the two weeks of negotiations. One prominent briefing that set the tone for our UN climate summit coverage featured former United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Executive Secretary Christiana Figueres and acclaimed climate scientist Sir Robert Watson. In 2023, we further expanded our COP efforts with two press conferences and our first-ever official COP side event, which looked at the science of carbon markets.
EESI devoted considerable resources to sustainable transportation policy in the early 1990s and helped ensure that the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 put environmental protection and energy efficiency on par with building more highways. Later that decade, we played an important role in the passage of the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21), which offered new opportunities to improve air and water quality, restore natural habitats, and reinvigorate urban areas by investing in mass transit and transportation redevelopment.
EESI collaborated with the American Planning Association to publish Planning for a New Energy and Climate Future, the culmination of a two-year project to help city planners incorporate clean energy and climate considerations into their work.
We released a fact sheet on the growth of commercial aviation emissions, which has been viewed 188,472 times since 2019. We also published a series of articles about sustainable aviation biofuels, a carbon-neutral alternative to power jet planes.
Author: Amaury Laporte
Advancing science-based climate solutions
Top-Rated Climate Nonprofit – 4-Star Charity