RFF Awards Grants to Fund Research on Major Federal Energy Laws

Resources for the Future (RFF), generously supported by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, is pleased to award seven teams grants to analyze clean energy policies and programs developed under the Inflation Reduction Act and the Infrastructure Investments and Jobs Act.

Over the next two years, the teams will conduct research to help policymakers and experts understand the effects of these wide-ranging laws. You can learn more about the funding and its broader aim via the Request for Proposals.

“Federal policy must always be supported by rigorous research and program evaluation—especially now as we debate their effectiveness,” said Carlos Martín, RFF’s Vice President for Research and Policy Engagement. “Policies in the Inflation Reduction Act and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act affect people all over the United States. It’s in everyone’s best interest that we have the data to understand whether and how these policies change communities, public health, and the environment. RFF is proud to fund these researchers and their important work.”

Below are the teams and the awarded projects:

Understanding Solar and Storage Adoption by Low-Income Households

• Soren Anderson, Michigan State University
• Justin Kirkpatrick, Michigan State University
  
  

A Place-Based Clean Energy Subsidy: Environmental-Equity Tradeoff or Win-Win?

• Matthew Ashenfarb, Yale University
  
  

General Equilibrium Effects of Place-Based Renewable Subsidies from the Inflation Reduction Act

• H. Ron Chan, University of Manchester
• Akshaya Jha, Carnegie Mellon University
  
  

Electric Vehicle Policies in the Inflation Reduction Act: Where Do Climate Provisions and Industrial Policy Goals Align?

• Joshua Linn, University of Maryland*
• Yongjoon Park, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
• Yichen Christy Zhou, Clemson University
  
  

The Role of Licensed Contractors in Household Electrification

• Bora Ozaltun, University of California, Berkeley
• Meredith Fowlie, University of California, Berkeley
  
  

The Costs and Benefits of Place-Based Policies

• Max Snyder, University of California, Berkeley
• Eva Lyubich, University of California, Berkeley
  
  

Evaluating the Inflation Reduction Act Used Electric Vehicle Purchase Credits

• Tess Snyder, Stanford University
• Hyuk-soo Kwon, University of Chicago
• Hunt Allcott, Stanford University
  
  

Each team will prepare at least one paper for submission to a peer-reviewed journal. RFF encourages the grantees to produce auxiliary products, like blog posts or podcast episodes, to make their work accessible to a non-academic audience. Grantees will also participate in two RFF workshops to share their results with other teams, academics, and policymakers.

Brian Prest, a fellow at RFF who is leading the grantmaking process, said, “We are thrilled RFF is funding an outstanding group of scholars to study and evaluate clean energy policies, including the impacts of tax credits for clean energy and clean vehicles, place-based policy approaches, and home electrification. We consider it part of our mission to be a conduit of this research to have real policy impact and ensure that helpful information is available on Capitol Hill and beyond.”

Since RFF issued the request for proposals in October 2024 the policy environmental encompassing many of the studied programs has become more uncertain. Even as the policy conversations move quickly, the research produced from these grants will still help inform decisions about the role of tax credits, subsidies, and other government interventions in future climate and policy.

Please contact Brian Prest at [email protected] with any questions.

*Linn, who is also a Senior Fellow at RFF, is an unpaid contributor to the funded project.