Local advocates and community champions play pivotal roles in helping to shape programming that is responsive to, and intentionally built to service, those in the community that could see the biggest impacts to lower utility bills and safer, more comfortable housing. Champions are also the best advocates for accountability as utilities and regulators are most apt to be persuaded by those within their service areas. Clean Energy Works’ Just Energy Transition team acts as both a conduit and an analyzer of the field’s potential opportunities and increasing collaboration in support of equitable inclusive utility investments.
The new members Just Energy Transition team at Clean Energy Works bring extensive experience in working with fenceline and shoreline communities at the intersection of clean energy, local economies, and just and equitable policy and advocacy. Since joining the team in June and September respectively, Director Carol Davey and Senior Associate Bethzaida Olivera Vasquez have been deepening relationships with coalitions, networks, and the community-based organizations that are doing vital work towards the advancement of inclusive utility investments with their utilities.
The Just Energy Transition is deeply rooted in racial and social equity. Having both worked together previously on building political power specifically in Justice40 communities as part of the conservation voter movement; the team brings with them a synergy and deep expertise working with communities facing disproportionate divestment impacts. In the last six months the team has provided the structure and connective tissue, acting as conduit between local community based organizations and the industry expertise and technical assistance of Clean Energy Works’ Buildings and Transportation Decarbonization Teams.
For example – Last year we continued to deepen relationships with key coalitions and attend convenings of community-based organizations from across the county. As an example we work closely with the Rural Power Coalition (RPC) as they strategize how to best achieve their mission to elevate rural communities as leaders of a just and clean energy transition.
RPC recently produced an animated short video titled “Power to the People: The Story of Rural Electric Cooperatives” to support their mission. The video narrates the journey of electric cooperatives from their establishment in the New Deal era of the 1930s, highlighting their present opportunity to achieve their democratic aspirations by leading the transition to renewable energy. Director Carol Davey and Just Energy Transition independent contractor Karen Campblin were inspired to hear from over 20 place-based organizations representing member-owners across the country at their convening in Louisville, Kentucky. It was both insightful and inspiring to hear community champions training others on the benefits of inclusive utility investments from the perspective of different states and diverse co-ops.
As part of our commitment to ensuring a just transition from fossil fuels to clean energy, the team joined over 200 participants composed of representatives/leaders from coal communities, federal, state, local, tribal, and international governments, the private sector, labor, philanthropy, and NGOs at the Just Energy Transition Fund Convening in D.C. Sessions that provided snapshots into the opportunities and barriers of coal and energy transition communities was a tremendous opportunity to learn from the innovations in the field. In particular, the session Reducing Barriers to Economic Opportunity provided keen insights on the promising strategies that coal community leaders are using to holistically address interrelated challenges to accelerate change and build equitable and inclusive new economies in the process.
The team has been hard at work at the intersection of interrelated challenges and creating bright spots of opportunities through scalable solutions. Creating synergies in the field requires and is built upon the entirety of Clean Energy Works centering equity and inclusion at the heart of our work and mission. In the fall, the Just Energy Transition Director and Co-Executive Director Tamara Jones led staff through an equity series which focused on our unique position as a conduit between stakeholders often seen in conflict and providing comprehensive understanding of addressing and incorporating equity and inclusion within our lane of the utility sector. Inclusive Utility Investments and equitable financial solutions to solving the accessibility of upgrade barriers are a key piece of the puzzle towards a just energy transition.
A just and equitable transition is not guaranteed. It requires continual work to address procedural, restorative, distributive, and transformative dimensions of equity. Clean Energy Works staff learned about how to address those dimensions through approaching the spirit, art, habits, and science of engaging in equity work. The series culminated in the Fall staff and board retreat in Montgomery, Alabama and visits to the Legacy Museum: From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration and National Memorial for Peace and Justice which provided opportunity to deepen knowledge of historical and current unjust systems and a facilitated space to make vital connections to their work and the absolute need to lead with equity through our strategies, policies, data analysis, communication, engagements, and beyond.
In 2024, we’re building off of the insights of the equity retreat to craft and implement our equity framework. We will continue to provide technical assistance and services to stakeholders within utilities, regulators, and the community-based organizations that seek to advocate for inclusive utility investments as just and equitable solutions to increasing access to the clean energy economy for all.
