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The 2024 Community Power Scorecard from the Institute for Local Self-Reliance provides a measure of state policies related to energy democracy and utility accountability. State scores suggest lawmakers must take immediate action to improve. Of the 50 states and D.C., only one state scraped an above average grade (a B), 11 hit the C average, 13 received Ds, and 26 states received a failing F grade. This annual scorecard goes beyond greenhouse gas reductions or renewable generation capacity to evaluate how state policies help or hinder local clean energy action.

There is a growing awareness of the urgent need to create activist spaces that are accessible, welcoming and provide material support for people with diverse health needs. But how can this actually be achieved? This resource summarizes the activists’ experiences, insights and recommendations that they shared in the interviews. Offer material support. Provide a diversity of actions for people to take part in. Normalize people coming in and out of movements as their needs and circumstances change. Have designated welcoming and support roles in groups to make sure every new member feels welcome.

Religion and race shape views on whether climate change is caused by human activities. Less than a third of white evangelicals saying it's driven by people, according to a new survey. Three-fourths of Hispanic Catholics and all religiously unaffiliated Americans (76%) believe climate change is caused by human activity, a survey released Wednesday by the nonpartisan Public Religion Research Institute found. But less than half of Latter-day Saints believe climate change is caused by human activity (48%), and just three in 10 white evangelical Protestants (31%) believe so.

Pollution of drinking water remains Americans’ top environmental concern, and few ever say that the government is doing “too much” to protect the environment. 62% of Americans say that they worry at least “a fair amount” about climate change, including 42% who worry “a great deal” about it. 61% of Americans recognize that pollution from human activities is the primary cause of increases in the Earth’s temperature over the past century. 59% of Americans recognize that the effects of global warming have already begun. Only 19% of Americans say that the U.S.

Voters strongly support provisions in President Biden’s budget to close Big Oil tax loopholes and lower energy costs. Roughly three-quarters (77%) support Biden’s proposal to “close tax loopholes that benefit Big Pharma, Big Oil, and wealthy corporations,” including a majority (56%) who strongly support this proposal.

Americans are more interested in hearing about solutions to climate change than causes, impacts, or evidence. Yale and GMU find in a new analysis that far more Americans would ask about solutions (44%) than evidence (20%), causes (18%), or impacts (11%). Left-leaning audiences are particularly eager to hear about solutions, but conservative audiences still want to hear about the evidence and causes. Of major political and demographic subgroups, Yale and GMU find that liberal Democrats (71%) are the most likely to say that they would ask solutions-focused questions.

A steady seven in ten Americans recognize that climate change is happening, including a particularly high percentage of AAPI adults. Americans rate Biden far better than Trump on climate change, but only three in ten say that Biden has made a positive impact on the issue. 67% of Americans say that oil and gas companies are doing too little to address climate change. 58% of Americans say that oil and gas companies have “a lot” of responsibility to address climate change. The majority of Americans (56%) say that the federal government is doing too little to address climate change.

Voters support the SEC’s new climate risk disclosure rule and widely agree that people should be able to take climate-related risks into account in their investment decisions. Voters say that large companies and corporations should be held accountable for their environmental impacts: four in five (80%) say that large companies and corporations have a responsibility to manage their impact on the environment, including nearly half (46%) who say that companies have “a lot” of responsibility for managing environmental impacts.

Roughly half of Americans say that they would consider an EV. The percentage of Americans who own EVs has increased in the past year, but so has the share who say that they “would not buy” one. 7% of Americans now report owning an electric vehicle, up three points from last March (4%). The percentage who are “seriously considering” buying an EV has dipped by an equivalent amount, from 12% down to 9%. Taken together, these two shifts suggest that there is a steady share of the population – roughly one-sixth of adults – who either own or are seriously in the market for an EV.