Energy and Climate

The Federal Communications Commission has a specific set of environmental rules that must be followed when building any telecommunications infrastructure. Broadband providers that haven’t built on park lands or were funded by certain federal broadband grants probably never heard of these rules. But the rules apply to all telecommunications construction. The reason providers probably haven’t heard about these specific rules is that the FCC has largely put providers on the honor system to meet these guidelines.

The environmental impacts of broadband networks are not well understood. The infrastructure required to run these networks requires power, which in and of itself, releases carbon and other emissions into the atmosphere. Hence the power consumption of broadband networks matters.

The Wi-Fi signal is weak outside the Frederick Douglass National Historic Site in Anacostia, a historic African-American section of Washington, DC. It is one of Monica Sanders’s final stops on an overcast December afternoon. Sanders, an adjunct professor of law at Georgetown University, isn’t just checking Wi-Fi speeds.

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced the availability of $20 million to deliver broadband technical assistance resources for rural communities and to support the development and expansion of broadband cooperatives. USDA is offering funding under the new Broadband Technical Assistance Program.

To maximize the impact of the Biden-Harris administration’s historic infrastructure, manufacturing, and clean energy investments, the US Department of Labor announced the availability of $80 million in funding through its Building Pathways to Infrastructure Jobs Grant Program. The Investing in America agenda, which includes legislation such as the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), Inflation Reduction Act, and CHIPS and Science Act, is creating millions of good-paying jobs in renewable energy, transportation, and broadband infrastructure sectors, and the Biden-Harris administrat

While most Californians have access to broadband, at least two million households (15 percent) still do not—a gap known as the digital divide. In 2021, California invested $6 billion through Senate Bill (SB) 156 to expand broadband infrastructure, address affordability, and promote digital literacy. The Public Policy Institute of California presents findings from the first year of implementation, drawing on statewide broadband data and interviews with 41 community partners, spread across 54 of California’s 58 counties. The Institute finds that:

A new broadband network for Colrain, Charlemont, Heath, Leyden, and Rowe (MA) that prevents major outages and improves the resiliency of internet access will be completed by June 30, 2023. The system creates three backhauls and a 10-gigabyte circuit connection shared between the towns: one in Rowe, one in Charlemont, and one in Leyden. The project also increases redundancy to prevent internet outages caused by downed utility poles, fires, or other natural disasters.

Around the country, there are now elaborate alert systems in areas subject to tornados and other dangerous weather events.

US fiber companies are furiously expanding their network footprints to accommodate growing demand from consumers and businesses for high-speed broadband.

Pew aims to mitigate the effects of increasingly frequent and destructive natural disasters by boosting investment in mitigation, ensuring that infrastructure is flood-ready, and promoting clean energy resilience. Pew also works with state and federal policymakers, researchers, and other partners to accelerate the nation’s progress toward universal and affordable high-speed internet service—which includes building, linking, and maintaining the infrastructure required to provide broadband connections.