August 2021
Failure to Diversify Californias Community Choice Aggregators Are Woefully Behind In Contracting With the States Diverse Small Businesses
“In 2020, California’s Community Choice Aggregators contracted with diverse firms for less than 0.1% of purchases, cutting women, minority, disabled veteran and LGBT-owned businesses out of $1.2 billion of economic opportunity when compared to investor-owned energy utilities”
May 2021
Equity in Energy: Net Energy Metering & Low Income Solar
Net Energy Metering, or NEM, is a billing system that credits electricity customers for the excess electricity produced by their own generation system (e.g., rooftop solar panels) and sent to the electric grid
Adopted in California in 1996, the first NEM framework (NEM 1.0) provided that customer generators would receive the full retail rate for their excess power and included a statutory gap that limited total consumer capacity to 5% of the total load of the area utility
NEM 2.0 is the framework that was initiated by 2013’s AB 327 in anticipation of reaching the statutory 5% cap, which established an alternative fixed sunset date of July 1, 2017 for NEM 1.0
NEM 2.0 was adopted by the CPUC in January 2016 and retains consumers’ ability to sell energy back to the grid, including a Time-Of-Use plan in which electricity is charged at different rates based on time of day as well as an interconnection fee and charges for use of the electric grid
September 2020
California Lifeline - TruConnect Map Release
2020 Assembly and Senate District Maps for California Lifeline Program: Enrollment and Eligibility
According to the data, an estimated 4.7 million individuals are eligible but not enrolled in the California Lifeline Program.
ideateLABS has released the 2020 enrollment and eligibility maps for the California Lifeline Program. The California Lifeline Program is a free telecommunications and advanced telecommunications program administered by the California Public Utilities Commission. In California, eligible individuals of the program receive a free smartphone device with wifi ability, free minutes, free text, and free data. (ranging from 3GB to 5GB). The CPUC is looking at expanding services October 2020.
These maps are an update from 2019. The data was collected by the Assembly Budget Committee- Asseblymember Phil Ting, Chair. Note: The data is pre-COVID. We estimate an additional 1 to 1.5 million individuals are eligible as a result of unemployment or other factors.
Data analysis was by Alex Gudkov of TruConnect and Hanna Flores of ideateLABS.
July 2020
IdeateLABs Announces New UCLA Study Results on Teledentistry and the Impacts on Latinos
New UCLA Study Finds Accessibility and Affordability Critical for Latinos
August 2019
California Lifeline - TruConnect Map Release
TruConnect is a nationwide wireless service provider that is committed to making communication needs more flexible and affordable. TruConnect currently offers Lifeline service to residents in California as well as in Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas,Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, West Virginia, and Wisconsin, with more coming soon.
Data analysis was by Bo Lay and Alex Gudkov of TruConnect with direction by Hanna Flores of IdeateLABS. Lizette Solorzano provided administrative support. IdeateLABS would like to thank Lucy Sung, Shane Gillette of TruConnect for their support and coordination.
April 2019
Vision 2020 Youth Policy Platform
This Youth Policy Platform lays out our vision for change that will create a more just world—policy change that we, the Brothers, Sons, Selves (BSS) Coalition believe is necessary to significantly improve outcomes for Boys/Bois and Men of Color (BMoC) by removing unjust barriers to their success. It serves as a living document that summarizes our vision for the future, how policies have impacted us and how our advocacy has positively impacted policy.
February 2018
Pilot Program Update: Rapid Growth of Finders and the Need for Regulation to Keep Pace
Regulators, policymakers, consumer advocates, and lenders continue to struggle to find a balance between profit-driven lending practices, access to fairly priced loans and mission-driven policies.
October 2017
Youth Vote
California 16 and 17-year-olds have pre-registered to vote in the last two years, according to new data released by the Secretary of State.
November 2017
Net Metering Reforms: Lessons Learned From Other States and Jurisdiction
Active regulatory proceedings as well as legislative efforts seeking to correct the issues that arise from net-metering policy are taking place in many jurisdictions. There is a clear trend to amend the historical net metering rule that provided a credit equal to the full retail rate for excess generation produced by rooftop solar customers.
March 2017
Meet The New Members of California Legislature
Introduction of the new members selected into legislation.
March 2016
Solar Consumer Protection For The Emerging Industry
Solar power on the roof and in the neighborhood. Recommendations for consumer protection policies.
