Enoch Boateng, a 2nd year DPA student, presented his paper coauthored with SPMP faculty Dr. Rick Funderburg at the American Association of Geographers (AAG) conference in Detroit on March 28. Their paper titled “Equalizing the Energy Cost Burden among Low-Income Households in Illinois” solves a problem for an Illinois state government program that subsidizes low-income households to help defray household energy costs. Enoch, Dr. Funderburg, and David Wortman of the Illinois Dept. of Commerce and Economic Opportunity investigate how more than 500,000 households change their energy consumption and switch between electricity and natural gas usage in response to spikes in energy rates. The research is essential for planning responses to anticipated energy rate volatility as we transition energy reliance from fossil fuels to renewables. The AAG conference is an annual international meeting that brings together more than 8,000 geographers from across the world each year.