8

Building Proactive and Long-Term Capacity for Communities

Revolutionizing energy, the bedrock of our economy and society, is a major component of this (equitable and just) future.
—Matthew Tejada, Natural Resources Defense Council

The last session of the workshop discussed how community benefits frameworks can support the development of enduring community coalitions and the capacity to deliver benefits and build power in place. The panel discussed the practices and priorities for developing resilient community infrastructure to support negotiation and ensure enforcement and accountability. Louise Bedsworth from the University of California, Berkeley, moderated the panel. The speakers included Ann Rogan, Edge Collaborative; John Hall, Houston Advanced Research Center; Matthew Tejada, Natural Resources Defense Council; and Wendolyn Holland, Alliance for Tribal Clean Energy.

Bedsworth started the discussion by asking the speakers to share opening remarks. Tejada, who had formerly served in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as the senior career official for environmental justice, emphasized that the nation is at a pivotal and historic moment for several reasons. These include society’s willingness to engage in conversations about historical inequalities and the marginalization of communities, political momentum that wants to embrace equity, and the Biden administration’s willingness to invest in an equitable and just future. He continued that “revolutionizing energy, the bedrock of our economy and society, is a major component of this future; however, we are challenged by capacity issues.”

Holland, who serves as an advisor for policy, tax, and federal government relations in her role at the Alliance for Tribal Clean Energy, agreed that this is a historic moment for tribes as well. The Biden administration’s efforts to support tribal nations, responsibly build trust, and promote tribal self-determination brought an unprecedented focus on community benefits, workforce development, and decolonization of individual behavior in tribal communities. Rogan, who is based in Stockton, California, with some of the worst air quality and water quality issues in the country, also highlighted that this is a moment to reimagine an equitable and inclusive future, given the amount and the magnitude of the investment that we are getting from the public sector for community benefits. Hall

agreed and emphasized that the two key priorities in his organization are to work with everyone in the community to address the impacts of climate change and, in light of the investments being made today, to work with environmental justice communities, local governments, and others to leverage the funding to also address social, economic, and racial injustices. He continued that for his organization the big question is how they can work with energy companies in Texas, including ExxonMobil, Chevron, and Shell, who have never thought of community benefits at this scale before. He believes “it is critical to work with these companies, to get them to embrace the Justice40 framework and institutionalize it as part of their work to have transformative impact.” It is also important to build capacity and coalitions with major energy companies to insulate the use of community benefits frameworks from political ideology and changes in the priorities of future federal administrations.

NEEDS FOR CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT

Bedsworth further probed the topic of capacity development and asked the panel members to share their thoughts on how their organizations are currently building capacity and what more is needed. Rogan shared that her organization was focused on building relationships between national laboratories and communities. However, she recognized that most community groups are not proximal to or do not have access to a national laboratory, and do not necessarily trust the scientific community, so it is important to focus capacity-building efforts around community empowerment. Hall said his team focused for years on deep community engagement and gaining the community’s trust before applying for any federal funding opportunity. Much of that work also involves educating communities and empowering them with new knowledge about technologies, concepts, and processes they may have never heard of to enable communities to advocate for themselves. He admitted that community engagement on the industrial side is more complicated because it also involves building and sustaining economic solutions.

Holland agreed and added that capacity development means going both ways. For her team, this means more support for tribes, and improved capacity at tribal and state energy offices in terms of staff, annual appropriations, capabilities, and information technology support. Tejada highlighted that there is more capacity assistance available right now than there has been ever before. The Inflation Reduction Act has enabled better hiring practices; local and state ordinances; increasingly well-informed responses in communities; better funding for lawyers, engineers, and scientists who work with communities; and improved transparency and enforcement. Bedsworth summarized the panel’s comments as, “Long-term capacity building can shift the power dynamic and level the playing field between community and industry.”

Leveraging Available Resources

Next, Bedsworth asked the panel members for their thoughts and advice on how communities can leverage the available resources. Hall underscored the need for philanthropy and environmental advocacy organizations to embrace the issue of racial equity as being important for addressing climate change. Energy issues will be most significant for fence-line communities—communities that are immediately adjacent to the sites of energy projects like power plants, manufacturing facilities, refineries, and solar and wind farms. Hall reiterated the need for an ongoing, independent, transparent research and analysis process to empower and inform communities about where opportunities may lie.

Holland seconded the call to action for philanthropy. She highlighted that the programs mentioned in earlier panels, like the Thriving Communities Technical Assistance Centers (TCTACs), are instrumental in supporting rural, remote, and tribal communities in the clean energy transition and on environmental justice issues. Tejada continued that for the EPA, TCTACs came before the Inflation Reduction Act. They learned from leaders in the environmental justice movement to build institutional support and infrastructure and improve foundational resources for community organizations, tribal governments, and low-capacity local governments.

Advice for Stakeholders

Building on the responses of the other panelists, Rogan shared advice for DOE, philanthropy, and industry. For DOE, more work needs to be done on transparency and access to data. There is a need for more data on who is applying for funding opportunities and for building feedback loops between communities, the government, and the private-sector developers. There is also a need for more data on the projects being contemplated at the federal level. She continued that DOE also needs to fund capacity development within communities, instead of just funding capacity development for government organizations like national laboratories. She continued that philanthropic organizations must fund research and legal capabilities in every environmental justice community applying for federal and state funding. Lastly, industry must start operationalizing financial stakes in these projects and grow beyond community engagement to build community ownership and governance.

Hall added that another issue to bring to DOE’s attention, which he had specifically observed in hydrogen hub projects, is the conflicting advice from different parts of DOE as to whether the funding needs to be allocated on issues related to commercialization only, or if it could be used to address community needs like reducing utility bills.

DISCUSSION

An audience member asked the panel how to move beyond reliance on government and philanthropic investment by considering the role of private equity in shaping industry behavior, influencing project development, and guiding how developers engage with communities. Tejada responded that involving private equity is essential to building resilience against political cycles. Many private equity firms are already participating in these processes, driven by stakeholder expectations, environmental, social, and governance commitments, and a desire to demonstrate accountability. Holland added that while private equity is active in some areas, it has not yet engaged in all types of projects. For example, to her knowledge, private equity has yet to invest in tribal energy initiatives.

Another audience member asked whether the scale of benefits from new energy projects would be sufficient to meaningfully address longstanding and deeply rooted socioeconomic inequalities. Rogan responded that, in principle, any harm—past or present—should be mitigated, and new investments should be maximized and equitably shared to do so. In practice, this moment offers a chance to leverage public funding not only to build a clean energy future but also to confront and redress historic injustices. Holland closed the panel by emphasizing that this is also an opportunity to dismantle the structural exclusion of underserved communities—such as tribes—from access to capital market.