On Wednesday, June 19th, the office of Maine’s Senator King, in partnership with NASEO, the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, and the Island Institute, hosted a briefing to explore expanding access to energy efficiency upgrades in remote and high energy cost communities. At the briefing, the Maine Governor’s Energy Office, as well as NASEO’s Executive Director, David Terry, and other guests discussed a recent study, Bridging the Rural Efficiency Gap, which analyzed the high energy costs in rural Alaska, Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont and identified barriers to increasing energy efficiency. The study found that rural and remote regions have an unusually high energy burden (i.e. percent of income spent on energy) of up to 25%, compared to 3.3% nationally. The presenters shared insights on how to tailor policies and efficiency enhancement programs to target rural and remote communities. Additional resources can be found through the following link, and the report can be found here.