In this webinar, the Lab team is joined by the Regulatory Assistance Project to explore recommendations from the new report Energy Infrastructure: Sources of Inequities and Policy Solutions for Improving Community Health and Wellbeing.

In addition to the report, participants also learn from advocates across the country fighting for an equitable clean energy future. Contributing speakers shared their reflections and lessons learned from a variety of perspectives on what it takes to achieve energy equity, including how they're financing low-income solar, how they're growing solar through state-level policy, and how to work in strong coalition.

Contributing speakers include: Donna Brutkoski, Communications Associate, Regulatory Assistance Project; Yesenia Rivera, Director of Energy Equity and Inclusion, Solar United Neighbors; and Jacqueline Hutchinson, Vice President of Operations, People’s Community Action Corporation.

This resource looks at where Black audiences are when they are online and how they act when they get there. This goes beyond reliance on polls and surveys to create a more complete picture of the culture people are consuming, creating and being inspired by. Key takeaways include the identification of five distinct Black audiences: Strivers, Planners, Learners, Gamers, and Bootstrapers, along with the most popular platforms (Google and YouTube) and the fact that most Black people are getting COVID news from mainstream and left-leaning outlets on their desktops.          

This article draws from an interview with Kim Wasserman, executive director of Little Village Environmental Justice Organization (LVEJO), based in Chicago, Illinois. Kim Wasserman and LVEJO (pronounced “ell-VAY-ho,”) have spent nearly two decades "fighting the bad" in Chicago’s predominantly immigrant community of Little Village, engaging in a 12-year campaign to shut down two coal plants that ranked as the top three for most polluted in the US and contributed to some of the highest asthma rates in the country.  After the conversation with Kim, the article captures are the main lessons the author learned about how to be an environmental justice leader.

Survey of Detroit adults sought to measure concern for and perception of the impacts of climate change and other environmental threats like pollution, flooding, and storms, how these threats impact different racial/ethnic groups, and how adults’ views on these issues vary by race and ethnicity. 

• Despite a crowded national issue agenda, Americans want action on the environment and prioritize protecting access to clean, safe water.
• America is bracing for a worsening environment. 57% expect the condition of the environment to get worse for the next generation; only 12% think things will be better and 31% think the environment will be the same.
• The top two things that Americans expect to get worse center on the environment; 57% think “damage from natural disasters” and 51% think “the environment where we live” will be worse in the next twenty years.
• There is a broad consensus that the U.S. needs to take more action. Fully 72% say that more needs to be done and 73% think humans can take action to reduce the impacts of climate change.
• 88% of Americans think companies have an obligation to take more action on environmental issues

• 79% of voters are more likely to support a lawmaker who supports policies that encourage renewabl energy options (such as wind, solar, and waste to energy technologies), compared to 51% of voters who are more likely to support a lawmaker who supports policies that encourage the development of more fossil fuel energy, such as coal and oil. 
• Voters are most likely (85%) to support a lawmaker who supports legislation that would provide additional ways for home or business owners to finance energy upgrades, such as improved insulation, lighting, or windows. 
• 77% of voters are more likely to support a lawmaker who wants to change North Carolina's regulatory policy to allow for more competition and consumer choice. 
• A pluarility of voters (38%) see climate change as a "serious problem" and think "immediate action" is necessary. An addiitonal 22% support "some action." 
• 60% of voters recognize that the effects of climate change "have already begun to happen" and 59% understand climate change is "mainly the result of manmade pollution."