This report was last updated in November 2021. It may no longer be accurate, both with respect to the evidence it presents and our assessment of the evidence. We may revise this report in the future, depending on our research capacity and research priorities. Questions and comments are welcome.

Read our full Deep Dive on Rewiring America:

Executive Summary

In this document, we provide a descriptive overview of Rewiring America’s activities and describe a quantitative cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA) model that assesses the organization’s marginal impact. We believe that Rewiring America is a well-run, impactful organization, and show that it has had a measurable impact on key legislation related to household electrification in 2021. However, it was not included among our top recommendations in 2021 due to the fact that it has attracted a large amount of donor funding in a very short time, and therefore we believe that it has less room to productively use additional funding in the short term. Additionally, we estimated lower cost-effectiveness for Rewiring America compared to our other recommendations. We plan to continue monitoring Rewiring America closely, and believe it is plausible that it could become one of our top recommendations in the future.

Overview

Rewiring America is an insider policy organization that supports mass electrification in order to reduce US emissions by 70% to 80% by 2035 and reach zero-emissions by 20501. Its model for a “maximum feasible transition” (MFT) involves replacing fossil fuel-based household appliances and vehicles with their clean energy counterparts at a 100% substitution rate after a production ramp-up of about three to five years. Rewiring America’s plans to reduce US emissions rely only on existing technologies; it therefore leans on well-established technologies such as wind and solar power plants, rooftop solar, electric vehicles, heat pumps, and batteries2. Rewiring America’s major work streams include research and policy. Its policy work includes writing policy proposals and lobbying for bills that support electrification. Rewiring America also works in coalition with other organizations to advance electrification.

Giving Green's Research

We researched Rewiring America by reviewing publicly available information on Rewiring America, speaking with a representative from the organization, speaking with multiple experts on decarbonization and US policy, and conducting a CEA based on data that we found. Publicly available information on Rewiring America included its website and various policy reports as well as media coverage of the organization.

Note: This is a non-partisan analysis (study or research) and is provided for educational purposes.