Climate Justice News - September 2024
Newsletter for September 2024
This monthly newsletter provides a list of events and opportunities, news articles, and reports related to climate justice, energy equity, energy justice, and equitable decarbonization.
Events & Opportunities
10/22-10-24: DOE Energy Justice Week
Justice Week 2024: Equity in Action is a hybrid event spotlighting the work that DOE is doing to advance energy justice and equity. Attendees will learn how specific and intentional actions can drive significant change toward a more equitable, clean, and just energy transition.
Nov 8-9 Environmental Joy: Roadmaps for Resistance, Resilience, and Thriving (Yale Global EJ Conference)
This conference series is a multidisciplinary and multicultural convening space that explores how practices and experiences of joy can uncover transformative solutions to our most pressing environmental challenges. This year, the conference will convene just after the U.S. general election. And, 2024 is, globally, the year in which over half the world will have experienced elections – a record. Conference attendees will focus on developing high-level roadmaps that build power and transform communities for environmental and climate justice and nurture environmental joy in light of and despite difficult political landscapes across the globe. The conference is largely in-person, though there are hybrid components.
Recurring – US DOE Office of Community Engagement Virtual Office Hours
Oct 2, 2024 2:00 PM
Oct 16, 2024 2:00 PM
Oct 30, 2024 2:00 PM
Nov 13, 2024 12:00 PM
Biweekly meetings with the US DOE OCE to ask questions, learn about programs, and meet staff.
News Articles
Northeast grid operator weighs first environmental justice position (E&E News, 8/7)
Five states called on ISO New England to establish a new position to engage with low-income and minority communities unfairly burdened by pollution. Such a role could serve as a “critical bridge” between ISO-NE and the communities it serves as the Northeast looks to transition to cleaner energy resources, officials from Massachusetts, Vermont, Rhode Island, Maine and Connecticut said in a letter to the nonprofit grid operator. The ISO would be the first regional grid operator to establish an executive-level position focused on environmental justice, or the notion that no one should be subject to disproportionate and excessive pollution. The role could be carved out in the grid operator’s budget plan, according to the letter.
Pivot Energy Collaborates with Microsoft to Develop Up to 500 MWac of Community-Scale Solar Projects that Will Deliver Significant Benefits to Local Communities (8/8, Pivot Energy)
Renewable energy provider Pivot Energy announced a 5-year framework agreement with Microsoft to develop up to 500 megawatts (MWac) of community-scale solar energy projects across the United States between 2025 and 2029. The agreement will enable Pivot to develop approximately 150 U.S. solar projects in roughly 100 communities across 20 states, including Colorado, Maryland, Illinois, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. Microsoft will purchase the project RECs for a 20-year term. The first projects are expected to come online before the end of 2024.
Advocates hope utility’s winter heat pump rate discount becomes model for Massachusetts utilities (Energy News Network, 9/30)
Residents with heat pumps in four Massachusetts towns will soon pay hundreds of dollars less for their electricity over the winter, thanks to a new pricing approach advocates hope will become a model for utilities across the state. State regulators in June approved a plan by utility Unitil to lower the distribution portion of the electric rate from November to April for customers who use heat pumps, the first time this pricing structure will be used in the state. It’s a shift the company hopes will make it more financially feasible for residents of its service area to choose the higher-efficiency, lower-emissions heat source.
‘The sky is the limit’: Solar program opens new opportunities for Chicago trainees (Energy News Network, 8/12)
The 548 Foundation is part of 548 Enterprise, a suite of renewable energy and affordable housing development projects, launched in 2019. The program is an intensive 13-week solar training course that helps to connect employers with job candidates from underrepresented backgrounds. Trainees test for and receive multiple certifications, including the OSHA 30 for quality assurance, and the NCCER and NABCEP for construction and solar professionals, respectively. The program is also a pre-apprenticeship qualifier.
Biden launches environmental justice climate corps (AmeriCorps/EPA, 9/25)
The program is part of the American Climate Corps, established by the Biden Administration, and aims to recruit members from communities overburdened by the impacts of climate change. The Environmental Justice Climate Corps will engage more than 250 AmeriCorps members over the next three years in full-time, yearlong service terms supporting EPA’s goals to cut pollution, create jobs, and lower energy costs. Members will serve across the country, helping organizations in disadvantaged and other low-income communities access federal resources to carry out locally driven projects to reduce pollution, increase community climate resilience, improve public health and safety, and build community capacity to address environmental justice and climate challenges.
DOE carbon capture workshops omit ‘naysayers,’ community advocates say (E&E News, 9/16)
The agency will fund workshops next month in three Texas communities that could soon neighbor DOE-backed carbon capture projects at industrial sites. The meetings, facilitated by educational media company Climate Now, aim to educate the public and answer questions on the emerging technologies. But environmental justice groups accuse the agency of turning community outreach events into public relations efforts, with few opportunities to register dissent.
California electric bill relief plan would gut low-income energy programs (Canary Media, 8/28)
AB 3121 in the California legislature proposes to slash hundreds of millions of dollars from programs that help schools replace worn-out HVAC systems, low-income households install batteries, and affordable housing projects deploy solar panels — all for what would amount to a one-time rebate of no more than $50 for customers of the state’s three major utilities. But the reforms proposed by the bill do little to address the primary drivers of those increases, which come down to the investments utilities are making in their power grids to meet rapidly rising electricity demand, and also to harden them against the risk of sparking deadly wildfires.
UNDP and IBM Launch New Tools to Forecast Energy Access and Model Energy Equity (IBM, 9/17)
Two new tools enable users — from policymakers at the national and community level to the general public — to analyze complex energy issues through advanced AI technology. The Electricity Access Forecasting AI model provides future forecasts at scale of electricity access through 2030. The Clean Energy Equity Index combines geospatial analytics with environmental, economic and social factors – such as education, greenhouse gas emissions, and relative wealth — to generate a Clean Energy Equity score of 0-1. This score reflects both opportunities for clean energy development as well as urgency, through the lens of equity and a just transition.
Reports & Resources
Heating with justice: Barriers and solutions to a just energy transition in cold climates (McKenna, Gronlund, Vaishnav; Sep 2024)
The authors find that low-income households choose similar temperature setpoints to higher-income households, but live in less efficient homes. Below-median income households, which today experience a median energy burden of 6%, would see it rise to 10% if they shifted to electric heat pumps from natural gas. Weatherization could offset this increase, bringing burdens down to pre-electrification levels. However, median payback is 24 years, making retrofits infeasible for the poorest. The results are indicative of an energy poverty trap that could hinder an equitable energy transition.
California dreaming: Why environmental justice is integral to the success of climate change policy (Pastor, Cha, Méndez, Morello-Frosch; July 2024)
The authors highlight the experience of California and the contentious processes through which EJ became integrated into the state’s climate action efforts. The paper examines the achievements and shortcomings of California’s commitment to climate justice and discusses how lessons from the state are influencing the evolution of current federal climate change policy.
Place and price are the main components of equity in climate-related energy investment (Brookings, Sep 2024)
This memo explores the context of equitable climate finance in the U.S. energy transition, focusing on electricity generation and oil and gas production. It first examines the role of fossil fuels in the U.S. energy landscape, including their contribution to GHG emissions. The memo then considers how private investment flows into the energy sector. Lastly, it considers specific climate equity considerations.
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