Regional Assessment and Barriers Analysis
The Regional Assessment and Barriers Analysis (RABA) study seeks to better understand barriers to the participation of disadvantaged communities and lower-income households in clean energy programs and workforce in the Southern Tier region. Read the executive summary below, or read the full text [pdf].
The study includes background information on the region’s population, economy and energy landscape, and identifies a series of barriers and corresponding recommendations and strategies to address those barriers. The study is based on regional and state reports, a survey of residents, interviews with partners and contractors, and Hub staff experience. While aspects of commercial energy use are touched on, the report mostly pertains to residents from marginalized communities.
The Southern Tier region comprises eight counties running along the southern border of New York State. While predominantly rural in landscape, a majority and growing share of its population of 641,000 live in urban areas, with greater Binghamton and greater Ithaca—the two largest urban areas in the region—making up one-third of the population. Population in the region has been on the decline over the last several decades, especially among working-age adults.
Some 20% of the population lives in areas designated as “Disadvantaged Communities” (DACs), mostly concentrated in the cities of Binghamton, Elmira, and Bath; another 24% of the region’s population live outside DACs but are considered low income. More than half of lower-income households rent their homes. People of color are two to three times more likely to live in poverty than white people.
The weatherization of low-income homes has proceeded at a steady pace over the last several years; heat pump installs have been on a rapid climb; and the number of residential solar installs peaked in 2015 and have declined since, though there has been an increase in industrial scale solar installations. In all instances, however, the pace of installs for all technologies is far from what is needed to reach the goals of the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA), which aims for 100% renewable energy and ambitious greenhouse gas reductions in the next several decades.
Through surveys conducted with over 300 residents at food distribution centers and other places that serve low-income households, as well as interviews with community partners and energy contractors, barriers to the participation of DACs and strategies to overcome these barriers were identified. Among the most salient barriers were:
● Lack of awareness of clean energy programs and jobs and training in the region
● Low-income renters feeling disempowered to participate in clean energy programs since benefits accrue to the homeowner, or due to difficulties with their landlord
● Lack of training programs for clean energy jobs
● A lack of Empower+ contractors and those that also install heat pumps
● Generational oppression of poor education, unequal incarceration, divestment from neighborhoods, and persistent prejudice, place many barriers to home ownership, energy awareness and literacy, and wealth, and, consequently, to clean energy actions.
In response, our Hub recommends over the coming years:
● Enhancing our communications and marketing through targeted outreach
● Organizing community campaigns focused on renters and landlords in urban areas and low-income homeowners with high heating costs in rural areas
● Strengthening our Hubs’ workforce development programs and expanding their reach to Chemung and/or Broome counties
● Strengthening partnerships with clean energy contractors to facilitate the hiring of trainees from our workforce programs
● Identifying or developing an energy literacy program that supports community engagement and a robust delivery system involving CEAs, partners, and volunteers
● Addressing legacy barriers of race and class that have led to persistent inequities, especially in terms of Black Americans. While addressing these structural barriers is not something Hubs can do on their own, we want to call attention to these structural issues, and hope that our work contributes however modestly to their dismantling.