Right-To-Renew, And Other Things
Gentrification and predatory housing practices led policymakers in Ann Arbor to create a new “right-to-renew” ordinance. Could it be a valuable tool in the fight for tenant protections?
Read More
Poverty
Energy Burden: How To Measure? How To Reduce?
Measuring energy burden is relatively straightforward. Figuring out how to create robust metrics for it, though– and how to address it- is much more challenging.
Read More
MDHHS and LIHEAP: We’ll Pay For Fossil Fuels. Weatherization, Not So Much.
At an MPSC workgroup meeting this morning on Energy Waste Reduction specifically for the low to moderate income (LMI) market
Read MoreDebt or Asset? How Utility Shutoffs Are About To Be A Big Problem.
Springtime and mounting debt related to COVID19 means utility shutoffs are coming. At least probably. Here are some ideas for how we can fix our broken systems for utility billing– and how we subsidize utilities through programs like LIHEAP without actually moving the needle on energy poverty.
Read More
MPSC December Meeting: Neighborhood-Level Equity and Energy
Dr. Tony G. Reames of the University of Michigan, Briana Parker of Elevate Energy, and others presented at an MPSC meeting on some approaches to the question of equity in energy efficiency for low-income communities and communities of color.
Read More
Facing A Crisis of COVID, Evictions, and Utility Shutoffs
COVID19 is exposing a particularly ugly nexus between energy insecurity and housing insecurity, referred to in a few separate presentations at a recent workgroup meeting of the Michigan Public Service Commission.
Read MoreJust When We Thought There Was Nothing Left To Gentrify, They Gentrified… Protest Speech?
A big to-do was made about Dan Gilbert’s effort to paint “POWER TO THE PEOPLE” in prominent, white and black
Read MoreDX’s EDIT Festival in Toronto
On a last-minute weekend trip to Toronto with a friend, I accidentally happened upon the EDIT Festival. Billing itself as
Read MoreHighlighting Detroit’s Sustainable Community Development Projects
“We often hear about how it’s great to get like-minded people together in the same place,” one USGBC-DRC member
Read MoreUp In Smoke: How LIHEAP Could (But Doesn’t) Reduce State Deficits And Carbon Footprint
WBEZ reported this morning that Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner’s deficit crusade will slash utility bill subsidies for lower-income customers through
Read More