2025 EESI Impact Report (Published July 2026)

Select Accomplishments

Making Energy More Affordable for Rural Households

What EESI's On-Bill Financing Work Has Accomplished

Between 2010 and 2025, EESI partnered with dozens of rural electric cooperatives, public power utilities, green banks, and others to develop and capitalize on-bill financing programs for clean energy upgrades.

Rural households spend 40% more for energy than their urban counterparts, on average. To address this rural energy burden, EESI and four South Carolina rural electric cooperatives piloted an innovative program—on-bill financing—to remove the upfront costs of improvements and deliver savings from day one. The results were undeniable: the first 125 participating households lowered their utility bills by about 34%.

By the end of 2025, EESI had helped launch 42 on-bill financing programs in 22 states and territories, benefiting thousands of rural families and small businesses.

EESI was also instrumental in the creation of the Rural Energy Savings Program (RESP) at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). RESP offers zero-interest loans for utilities to provide capital for on-bill financing programs. USDA has made 57 RESP loans worth about $600 million. EESI has supported about half of all RESP loans to date.

While EESI no longer provides technical assistance for on-bill financing programs, our advocacy for RESP will continue to ensure more utilities have access to loans to serve their customers, who will continue to save energy from lower bills for many years to come.

Thank You, Donors!

Letter from the President: Navigating a World of Change Together

EESI has seen our fair share of ups and downs over our 40-plus-year history. Change is the only constant, as they say. Changes in political leadership, technology, communications—you name it.

Thanks for your partnership along the way. Without your commitment to advancing climate change solutions, we certainly could never have kept the pace.

Of course, over this same time, our vision for the future has also been a constant: a sustainable, resilient, and equitable world.

That brings us to 2025: a year of unprecedented cutbacks, rollbacks, and clawbacks that undid important progress and unmoored our environmental, energy, and climate policies from reality.

In the face of these challenges, EESI was ready to meet the moment. We never let up. One key lesson learned is that Congress still has a very hearty (and surprisingly bipartisan) appetite for the educational resources we continue to deliver to policymakers.

There are only two safe predictions for what comes next. First: Things will keep changing. And second: We will continue to make the biggest, most positive impact possible by working together.