Energy justice spotlights of 2022
Hawaiʻi Public Utilities Commission Explores Energy Equity and Justice!
The Hawaiʻi Public Utilities Commission opened a docket to explore how to integrate equity and justice considerations across the agency’s work. This is in response to the 2022 Legislature adopting three resolutions requesting the PUC to mitigate high energy burdens for those disproportionately impacted by high costs as well as investigate equity centered regulatory decision-making.
“Through this proceeding. the Commission intends to address the specific matters set forth by the Legislature, and more broadly, the Commission intends to further the State's policy goals. to improve energy affordability and reduction of energy burdens for vulnerable customers. to ensure the burdens and benefits of energy energy infrastructure and the renewable transition are equitably distributed, including increasing accessibility of Commission proceedings among vulnerable and/or underrepresented customers”
The Sierra Club of Hawaiʻi plans to participate on this docket and focus on two areas of equity and justice in particular to advance: favoring prior informed consent by host communities for utility-scale renewable energy projects and supporting equitable distribution of utility-scale renewable energy projects. Blue Planet has historically not taken a position on these two issues. We looks forward to what the new year brings with this effort!
In May 2022, more than 230 consumer, environmental and public interest groups urged the Federal Trade Commission to investigate the electric utility industry for widespread abuses. These include bribery, fake dark-money campaigns and denying customers access to renewable energy.
“Today abusive utility practices are leading to increased electricity rates, obstruction of clean energy competitors in the face of climate change, and utility interference in democratic processes,” the groups said in the petition to the FTC.
The petition details widespread anti-competitive abuses by monopoly electric utilities across the country, including tens of millions of dollars in bribes to public officials, bankrolling schemes to run “ghost” candidates to keep political allies in power, and fixing the market to block competitors from providing renewable energy to customers. “Monopoly utilities are out of control,” said Anya Schoolman, executive director of Solar United Neighbors. “It’s time federal regulators step in and protect consumers.”
Controversial Inflation Reduction Act Passes - Historic Bill for Climate Action But Slippery Slope for Climate Justice.
On August 16, President Joe Biden signed into law a historic investment to address climate change, including funds for renewable energy, clean manufacturing, and environmental justice. The Inflation Reduction Act has the potential to slash the United States’ carbon emissions by 40 percent by 2030 and includes billions of dollars designated for low-income areas. But for many environmental justice advocates, the climate wins come with compromises that are hard to accept.
While some celebrate the billions of dollars for disadvantaged communities, others say compromises in the act put those same communities at risk.
Indigenous Women Victorious Over Big Oil
The two indigenous leaders are Nemonte Nenquimo, co-founder of Amazon Frontlines and the Ceibo Alliance, a Waorani leader; and Nonhle Mbuthuma, a leader of the amaMpondo people in South Africa and spokesperson of the Amadiba Crisis Committee, a collective that defends her community’s rights to steward their ancestral land.
In September 2022, they succeeded in getting a court to revoke a permit that would have allowed Shell to despoil Indigenous farming communities and fishing grounds along the pristine Wild Coast of South Africa. Just a few years earlier in April 2019, we organized Indigenous communities deep in the Ecuadorian rainforests to resist the government’s plans to drill in pristine rainforests and were victorious, protecting half a million acres of forests and setting a legal precedent to protect millions more.
Environmental Groups Release Roadmap to Accelerate Transmission Infrastructure - A coalition of environmental justice groups and organizations sent a letter to President Biden outlining a set of principles to accelerate the transmission infrastructure we need to meet our climate goals, while preventing harm to impacted communities.
“We must reject the false choice between accelerating clean energy transmission and ensuring communities are included in the process,” said Abigail Dillen, President of Earthjustice. “These principles outline how we can and must do both to build an equitable clean energy future.” The principles include recommendations to establish a bright line defining transmission projects that can get Federal Energy Regulation Commission review; a requirement that all stakeholders have a meaningful opportunity to have a say in transmission planning and siting reviews; and a change to the cost allocation rules to recognize the full benefits of transmission lines.
Los Angeles becomes the largest city to pass a new buildings electrification code; mandating all-electric new building construction as the first major policy operative to result from its process, which is grounded in ensuring its path to decarbonized buildings was responsive to needs from impacted residents.
Community-driven research on how the energy transition would affect workers, renters, and low-income residents made it possible for local advocates to define a set of energy justice priorities, which framed the official launch of a building decarbonization policy process. A full summary of progress on buildings in Los Angeles can be found in NRDC’s 2022 Sees LA Make Strides on Climate Justice blog post.