This independent report, Field Notes: Equity & State Climate Policy, explores and documents state and city level efforts to address the important intersection of climate policy and equity goals. This report is part of the RGGI Project Series, a series of science-based, nonpartisan research and analysis projects by independent experts, intended to inform and improve understanding of critical climate and clean energy issues facing the states and stakeholders today. This project was made possible with financial support from the Heising-Simons Foundation and the Merck Family Fund. Further support for the Series is provided by the Energy Foundation, Barr Foundation, Devonshire Foundation, The Betterment Fund, John Merck Fund and the New York Community Trust. The authors would like to thank Laurie Burt of Laurie Burt, LLC, who serves as Project Coordinator for the Project Series and provided guidance and assistance throughout the project. We are grateful for the research and technical support of our colleagues at Rutgers, Cecille DeLaurentis, Magdalena Mysliwiec, and Lisa Cintron, and for communications and editorial assistance from Gattuso Media Design and Spitfire Strategies. We also wish to note our sincere appreciation to members of the Project Working Group for their guidance and comments: Adrienne Hollis, Jackson Morris, Sofia Owen, Alejandra Nunez, Nancy Seidman, Elizabeth Stanton, and Jordan Stutt. In addition, the authors also thank and are most grateful for the assistance of the many state and city representatives, both within and outside the RGGI region, who provided important insights to this study, as well as the numerous stakeholders who took the time to offer insights and perspectives. The report reflects the analysis and judgment of the authors alone and does not reflect the views or official policies or positions of the interview participants, the Project Working Group, the funders, the RGGI Project Series, or Rutgers University. Suggested citation: Herb, J. and M. Kaplan. 2019. Field Notes: Equity & State Climate Policy. Prepared for the RGGI Project Series: The Environmental Analysis & Communications Group, Rutgers University Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, and the Rutgers Climate Institute. Cover photo credits from left to right: Mary Robinson Foundation; Elevate Energy; Jessica Kourkounis/Getty Images; and Climate Central/NAACP. This project was undertaken to better understand the challenges and opportunities associated with state and city efforts to intersect climate policy and equity goals. This in-depth analysis, an independent project of the RGGI Project Series, reviews ongoing and planned efforts in a set of states and two cities to direct benefits from their climate and clean energy programs to disadvantaged communities and consumers, in equitable ways. More specifically, the project offers a review of efforts by the nine states participating in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative1 (RGGI) (ME, NH, VT, MA, RI, CT, NY, MD and DE), and New Jersey and Virginia, which have taken steps to participate in RGGI. The study also reviews efforts in two states (California and Illinois) and two municipalities (Austin, TX and Columbus, OH) to provide perspectives from outside the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic region. Interviews were conducted with state and city representatives as well as diverse stakeholders and thought leaders. A Project Working Group provided the authors with insights during the course of the study. States within the RGGI region and the other jurisdictions reviewed for this report are highly diverse, each with in their unique history, culture, demographics, geography, public support for climate action, carbon footprint, and underlying authorities and role of government. These dynamics affect the development and design of state climate policy as well as a state’s participation in multistate programs. For these reasons, the authors took care not to present the analysis in this report as a comparison among states, which would be misleading. Rather, this study presents a review of different state actions and approaches underway today at this important crossroads of equity and climate goals. For more than a decade, states and cities across the country have served a leadership role in advancing science-informed climate policy through city, state and multi-state efforts. The rapid pace by which state climate policy is emerging is evidenced by the number of new laws, directives and policies adopted in 2018 and the first half of 2019 alone. Currently, there is an active ongoing dialogue across the U.S. regarding the intersection of climate and equity objectives with efforts targeted at addressing needs of disadvantaged communities and consumers. This climate/equity intersection is due to several factors, including recognition by many cities and states that climate change is and will continue to have a disproportionate impact on certain populations and will exacerbate existing stressors faced by disadvantaged communities and consumers. Research indicates that a greater proportion of environmental burden exists in geographic areas with majority populations of people of color, low- income residents, and/or indigenous people. It is well known that certain households (including some that are low-income, African American, Latino, multi-family and rural) spend a larger portion on their income on home energy costs. States and stakeholders are realizing that a transition to a low-carbon future by mid-century will require significantly increased participation of disadvantaged communities and households in the benefits of climate and clean energy programs. Observations Several overarching observations emerge from the analysis conducted for this study: Role of government - Many individuals interviewed for this report pointed to the critically important role that government plays in directing state climate and clean energy program benefits to disadvantaged communities and consumers. Several stakeholders and states noted 1 RGGI is the first mandatory, multi-state market-based carbon trading program in the U.S. See: https://www.rggi.org/. | that private markets would not, on their own, support significant penetration of renewable and clean energy systems in disadvantaged communities. These leaders pointed to several roles government is and can continue to play to advance deployment of climate and clean energy programs in these target communities: signaling program credibility to traditionally underserved markets; educating and providing incentives to consumers to create greater demand; and developing government-backed innovative funding and financing programs to address gaps in what private markets will deliver; Period of innovation – Now appears to be a “period of innovation” during which states are conducting demonstration and pilot efforts to inform effective “scale up” programs and identify emerging best practices. During this time, states are also building capacity to enhance efforts to incorporate equity considerations into program design and implementation. As a result, there appears to be significant opportunities for RGGI states to learn from each other’s efforts, as well as efforts outside the RGGI region; Participatory processes – Government representatives and stakeholders agree that upfront, inclusive processes are essential to increase participation of members of disadvantaged communities in decision-making both at the program design and implementation stages. These processes inform efforts to more intentionally, effectively and creatively integrate equity considerations into state climate policy; Diverse jurisdictions - The states within the RGGI region are highly diverse in many ways, including with regard to needs and challenges faced by their respective disadvantaged consumers and communities. For example, the needs of low-income rural residents may be different from those in urban communities. Some jurisdictions may consider workers displaced by a transition to a clean energy economy as especially vulnerable while others may focus on residents that have limited English proficiency or those living in flood-prone areas. In some jurisdictions, disproportionate environmental burden may be a prominent concern. Multi-sector efforts - Efforts to direct state climate program benefits to disadvantaged communities and consumers entails broad interagency, multi-sector policies that often involve collaboration and intersection of programs. Many state representatives point to the value of interagency climate policy committees as important in building relationships that coordinate climate policies with other government services essential to supporting disadvantaged communities and consumers, such as transportation, health, social services housing and community development. Complementary policies – There is a growing recognition that state and multi-state climate policies and programs alone, are not designed to address underlying, systematic conditions that cause inequities in disadvantaged communities, such as limited access to financial resources, transportation, disproportionate environmental burden, and health disparities. Within the RGGI region, as well as in the jurisdictions reviewed outside the RGGI region, there is active dialogue about use of complementary policies, in concert with climate programs, to address these inequities. Some stakeholders posit that state and multi-state climate policies should go beyond directing program benefits to disadvantaged communities and consumers