Tony Gerard Reames

• PhD Public Administration
• Professor (Associate) at University of Michigan

Fuel poverty, the inability of households to afford adequate energy services, such as heating, is a major energy justice concern. Increasing residential energy efficiency is a strategic fuel poverty intervention. However, the absence of easily accessible household energy data impedes effective targeting of energy efficiency programs. This paper use...

In the U.S. lighting represents about 9% of the average household's primary energy consumption and 20% of the average household's energy bill. Lighting in U.S. homes is in a state of transition with steady growth in the adoption of more energy-efficient lighting technology, such as, compact florescent lamps (CFL) and light-emitting diodes (LEDs). H...

Michigan Sustainability Cases (MSC) is an initiative of the University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability producing case studies for sustainability education that presents its cases on an inclusive openaccess learning platform called Gala. Each case tells the story of a controversial real-life issue with a challenging decision to...

Residential energy conservation and efficiency programs are strategic interventions to reduce consumption and increase affordability. However, the inability to identify and distinguish between high energy consumers and highly energy inefficient households has led to ineffective program targeting. Additionally, little is known about the spatial, rac...

Financial barriers are often cited as the principle impediment to the adoption of energy efficiency measures. Since 1976, the US Department of Energy's Weatherisation Assistance Programme (WAP) has provided state block grants for no-cost, low-income energy efficiency retrofits. Yet, millions of low-income American households lack affordable, reliab...

Offering a unique and critical perspective on energy justice, this Handbook delves into an emerging field of inquiry encapsulating multiple strands of scholarship on energy systems. Covering key topics including generation, transmission, distribution and demand, it explores fundamental questions surrounding policy, climate change, security and soci...

Millions of American households suffer from energy poverty, threatening their continued access to electricity. The COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 has unveiled the entrenched environmental and energy injustices that threaten public health at the household level and has inspired energy protection responses to address pandemic-caused economic hardship. Whi...

We review over 60 “visioning documents” authored by non-profits and frontline community members in the United States. These visions of energy justice – authored by the actors and communities that have historically organized energy justice programming – are largely absent in the energy justice literature, but they provide guidance on research and po...

This paper presents a quantitative framework to support policy decision-making around equitable energy interventions. By combining sociodemographic and techno-economic models in the energy space, we propose a linear programming model to calculate the optimal portfolio of energy investments that explicitly minimizes the energy burden of a given popu...

Persistent, systemic harms have resulted in inequalities in wealth distribution, energy insecurity, infrastructure reliability, heat island exposure, and preexisting health conditions, all of which have exacerbated climate change driven damages. Efforts to decarbonize our energy system to address the climate crisis must seize the opportunity to red...

Utility-scale photovoltaic (PV) installations made up 77 GW (6%) of installed capacity in the United States, as of the end of 2021 [1], [2]. This will grow to more than 500 GW by 2050 under a mid-case projection or more than 800 GW if solar costs decline more rapidly [3]. While utility-scale PV is projected to grow rapidly, to date, unlike energy e...

Residential energy use represents roughly 17% of annual greenhouse gas emissions in the United States (U.S.). Studies show that legacy housing policies and financial lending practices have negatively impacted housing quality and home ownership in non-Caucasian and immigrant communities. Both factors are key determinants of household energy use. But...

The burden of temperature‐associated mortality and hospital visits is significant, but temperature's effects on non‐emergency health outcomes is less clear. This burden is potentially greater in low‐income households unable to afford efficient heating and cooling. We examined short‐term associations between indoor temperatures and cognitive functio...

A sustainable community seeks to protect and enhance the environment, meet social needs, and promote economic success. On average, local governments lack meaningfully connecting their environmental and economic sustainability efforts to equity and social justice. Community-based organizations (CBOs) have emerged as local leaders with a growing capa...

Over the last decade, the United States has experienced continued growth in residential rooftop solar photovoltaic (PV) adoption. However, solar adoption disparities have been shown across household income, homeownership status, and more recently racial and ethnic demographics. A key component to ensuring a just clean energy transition is understan...

As the United States undergoes an unprecedented shift away from carbon-intensive energy sources and towards a clean energy future, federal policy will play a major role in supporting workers and regions that are affected, including low-income, rural, and minority communities. The transition to clean energy will have particularly significant implica...

Despite hosting nearly 8% of the United States’ wind energy potential, only one utility-scale wind farm exists on tribal lands. Several barriers hindering tribes’ capacity to harness their lands’ wind potential have been identified, including federal bureaucratic inefficiencies, difficulties securing financing, an inability to capitalize on the Fed...

The United States spends more on health care than any other OECD country, yet the nation’s health is declining. Recent research has identified multiple sources for this decline, including one’s position in social and economic structures, environmental quality, and individual and collective social capital. This paper assesses the primary hypotheses...

Since 1976, the U.S. Department of Energy's Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP) has provided state block grants for no-to low-cost energy efficiency retrofits for more than 7 million low-income households. Yet, more than 35 million households meet income-qualifications for the program. While numerous program evaluations demonstrate the energy-a...

Single-family residential rooftop solar adoption in the United States has not occurred equitably across the country, nor across socioeconomic and demographic groups. In response, state and local governments have developed solar equity programs, primarily focused on increasing adoption by low- and moderate-income (LMI) households. This study merged...

Efforts to eliminate anti-Black racism in academia must go far beyond superficial ticking of boxes. The academic community must create conditions for authentic, not tokenistic, Black engagement, argues Tony Reames.

Community-based nongovernmental organizations have emerged as leaders in local economic development, with a growing capacity for undertaking community sustainability projects in distressed neighborhoods. Very little is known about what organizational and managerial characteristics contribute to community sustainability performance. This article see...

The field of energy justice is at a critical juncture. As the social dimensions of energy systems are becoming more salient, it is time to reflect on what has been achieved, and look towards a future of greater impact and transdisciplinary methods in energy justice research and practice. In the past 10 years, the energy justice literature has grown...

A household is energy poor when they cannot meet energy needs. Despite its prevalence, the US has not formally recognized energy poverty as a problem distinct from general poverty at the federal level, which limits effective responses. In this Review, we examine the measurement and evaluative metrics used by the two federally-funded energy programs...

Using seven established course design principles for effective service‐learning, this chapter discusses the lessons learned in teaching the three E's of sustainability: environmental; economic; and (social) equity, in a professional program at an American Midwestern public university.

Access to upfront capital remains a primary barrier in residential energy efficiency adoption. Government-sponsored programs exist for low-income households while traditional financing serves creditworthy households. However, there remains a coverage gap for those with moderate incomes too high to qualify for low- income programs, but without acces...

Extreme summertime heat is a significant public health threat that disproportionately impacts vulnerable urban populations. Research on health impacts of climate change (including increasing intensity, duration, and frequency of hot weather) is sometimes designed and implemented without the involvement of the communities being studied, i.e., “commu...

Multiple studies have quantified the ecosystem services of green infrastructure for both public and environmental health. This study evaluates and compares accessibility of low-income and marginalized communities to the cooling benefits of green roofs in Detroit, MI in the context of the urban heat island effect and the City’s current heat relief s...

OVERVIEW State Energy Efficiency Resource Standards (EERS) have emerged across the United States, becoming prevalent in the early 2000's. EERS policies are state laws that require utilities to pursue energy efficiency as a cost-effective energy resource. As a result, billions of dollars have been invested in improving residential energy efficiency....

As our energy systems are transitioning towards low-carbon energy sources and their environmental and economic sustainability are assessed, their potential social impacts must also be determined. These social impacts may be disproportionate to a population, leading to energy justice concerns. The social life cycle assessment framework can be used t...

An extensive body of research has demonstrated that air pollution exposure is associated with adverse health outcomes. Urban air quality remains a major concern for both public health officials and the general public. In the United States, air quality public awareness campaigns are major efforts of governments at every level. Yet, our understanding...

“Affordability gap,” “water burden,” “water poverty,” and “water inequity,” represent different terms for the same phenomenon: a household’s strug- gle to afford safe, sufficient and reliable water service.1 2 3 This lack of access to affordable water represents one of the greatest challenges to water security in Metropolitan Detroit. The United S...

State policies providing residential energy efficiency programs have emerged over the past decade with the goal of producing widespread economic and environmental benefits. While these policies have largely achieved and surpassed legislated objectives, the degree to which program benefits are distributed amongst population subgroups, particularly l...

A systematic evaluation of the implementation of the federal government's environmental justice policies. In the 1970s and 1980s, the U.S. Congress passed a series of laws that were milestones in environmental protection, including the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act. But by the 1990s, it was clear that environmental benefits were not evenly...

This study examines changes from 2000 to 2010 in the adoption of sustainability plans and policies in a sample of U.S. cities. The study’s framework posits sustainability initiatives as communitarian outcomes intended to meet the needs of both current and future generations. We hypothesize, accordingly, that a community’s social capital level, in t...

Gentrification has gone from being perceived as a process that cities should avoid at all costs to a welcome result of sound economic redevelopment policy. This transformation in perception is rooted in the recent decoupling of the inflow of high-status residents to the urban core from the outflow of low-status residents. However, it is unclear whe...