Energy production, reliability, and connectivity have long been priorities in federal spending. Now, climate change is straining the existing grid infrastructure and threatening energy access across the country. In particular, renters, people of color, and households with low incomes face higher energy burdens. Recent federal energy investment has sought to repair and expand existing electrical infrastructure while introducing new innovations to address the distinct challenges of energy supply in the 21st century. In this summary, we evaluate how five large competitive federal energy grid programs distributed their funds, and whether they have addressed major energy needs.

Why This Matters

Adequately supporting our nation’s electrical grid requires a mix of investment strategies that target a wide range of communities. How can discretionary energy grid programs direct investment to address specific needs, such as expanding connectivity in rural communities, without neglecting other communities, such as those recovering from natural disaster–induced grid damage? This question is important for federal policymakers considering how to improve the nation’s energy system.

Key Takeaways

Our findings in this summary include the following:

• Alaska, Hawaii, and Oregon received the most per capita federal energy grid funding in fiscal years 2022 and 2023.
• Rural-focused programs tended to disburse more funding to both communities with high poverty rates and communities with high energy cost burdens than other programs.
• Among counties that applied for energy grid grants, winning counties had, on average, higher median household incomes, lower poverty rates, and lower shares of people of color than counties that did not win grants.
• Most energy grid programs awarded more funding to counties with greater environment-related administrative capacity (meaning local government staff working in the policy area). This may indicate that places with lower administrative capacity struggle to apply for and win necessary energy grid funding.

How We Did It

We compiled fiscal years 2022 and 2023 data by surveying award announcements from five energy programs overseen by the US Department of Energy and US Department of Agriculture: Smart Grid Grants, Grid Resilience Utility and Industry Grants, Energy Improvements in Rural or Remote Areas Program, Grid Innovation Program, and Rural Energy for America Program. Our analysis is conducted at both the county and state geographical levels. For projects that spanned multiple counties, we listed all jurisdictions where the project was located and assumed funds were distributed evenly among them, then summed all county-level funding to the state level. We collected demographic data from the US Census Bureau 2016–20 five-year American Community Survey, energy cost burden data from the Department of Energy’s Low-Income Energy Affordability (LEAD) tool, administrative capacity data from the US Census of Governments, and particulate matter exposure data from the Environmental Protection Agency’s Environmental Justice Screening and Mapping Tool. We explain our research process in greater detail in the methods appendix.

We conducted similar analyses of fiscal years 2022 and 2023 funding for broadband, climate resilience, housing, and transportation programs. These findings are part of a larger effort to track the distribution of federal infrastructure investments (including housing).