The Regulatory Advocacy Hub (the “Hub”) is dedicated to advancing regulatory excellence and inclusion in venues across the country in support of Vote Solar’s mission to realize a 100% clean energy future through a solutions-driven, people-first approach.
Within Vote Solar, the Hub applies regulatory knowledge amassed over the last twenty years to ensure that key learnings, technical expertise, the best available resources, and innovative research are effectively and consistently deployed across our five regional teams. The Hub increases staff efficiency and strengthens Vote Solar’s overall effectiveness by providing targeted stakeholder education, robust information sharing, and state-of-the-art technical support to enhance campaign and regulatory intervention performance. Externally, the Hub is a place for communities, non-profits, and other organizations to learn about regulatory issues and access tools to mount their own interventions, helping to advance a broad and inclusive clean energy agenda before public utility commissions and legislatures across the country. The regulatory space has long been intentionally inaccessible to the people most impacted by harmful energy decisions, and the Hub expands procedural justice by supporting direct access to these venues.
There are three subprograms housed within the Hub:
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- Grid Modernization and Decarbonization Program: deploys robust planning, modeling and analytical support for Vote Solar staff in legislative and regulatory proceedings, as well conducting research. The program also engages in additional efforts aimed at preventing unnecessary procurement of fossil assets on the grid while keeping energy affordable and reliable.
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- Policymaker and Community Education Platform: synthesizes our thought leadership and formulates compelling policy arguments and explanations through a centralized effort, targeting key organizations including utility commissions, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), Regional Transmission Organizations (RTOs) and Independent System Operators (ISOs), as well as the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC). The Education Platform also serves as a community resource to help demystify the regulatory process and present best practices in easy-to-understand terms, in order to help open the regulatory process up to a broader and more diverse set of stakeholders.
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- Vote Solar Policy and Regulatory Library: The Hub is currently building a digital library that tracks our growing body of testimony, analyses, and best practices and makes these learnings accessible to new and existing staff as well as coalition partners.