Reducing the impacts from climate change requires people to make decisions that may prompt substantial changes in their lives. One possible way to help them is with personalized decision aids. Here we describe a method for evaluating such aids, in terms of how they affect users’ understanding...

In-home electricity displays (IHDs) are digital devices that can give near-real-time information about electricity usage in the home. These devices have the potential to provide the kind of personalized feedback necessary to effect behavioral change among residential consumers. However, for...

Critics have speculated that the limited success of energy conservation programs among low-income consumers may partly be due to recipients having insufficient literacy to understand the outreach materials. Indeed, we found outreach materials for low-income consumers to require relatively high...

In 2001, the US Department of Energy (DOE) initiated a rulemaking process to consider whether to amend the existing energy efficiency standards for furnaces and boilers. A key factor in DOE's consideration of new standards is the economic impacts on consumers of possible revisions to...

The Dallas area housing market is examined before, during, and after the closure and cleanup of a 50-year-old lead smelter west of downtown Dallas, using a pooled time series and cross-sectional data set that covered all single family homes sold through the multiple-listing service from 1979...