Energy Justice Panel: Communities Leading the Transition
Join Young Professionals in Energy SF Bay Area for an evening of conversation with local organizers, advocates, and community leaders advancing energy justice for local communities. For decades, low-income communities and communities of color across the Bay Area have disproportionately faced the harms of pollution, environmental degradation, and inequitable energy infrastructure.
Our panelists will share firsthand experiences from their work and communities, highlighting both the challenges and the progress being made toward a more just and sustainable future. Attendees will leave with a deeper understanding of the intersection of energy, equity, and climate justice — and with tangible ways to support the movement for clean, healthy, and affordable environments for all.
Our panelists include:
Jessica Tovar, Local Clean Energy Alliance
Yolanda Sanchez, ex-Environmental Protection Agency
Reclaim Our Power Utility Justice Campaign
GRID Alternatives
Schedule
6:00 - 6:30 Mingling + Introductions
6:30 - 7:30 Panel
7:30 - 8:30 Networking + Refreshments
Thank you to our sponsors!
This event is hosted by GRID Alternatives and co-sponsored by the United Nations Association East Bay Chapter.
Transportation
Public Transit: The GRID Alternatives office is accessible from MacArthur BART via AC Transit. From MacArthur Station, attendees can take the 72 or 72M bus toward Jack London Square and exit near San Pablo Ave. The office is also accessible via the Emery Go-Round Hollis Line, which connects to MacArthur BART and stops nearby in West Oakland/Emeryville.
Driving: Street parking is available in the surrounding neighborhood.
Attendees consent to the use and distribution of the attendee’s image in future Young Professionals in Energy promotional emails and materials.
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Panelist bios:
Jessica Guadalupe Tovar is the Executive Director of the Local Clean Energy Alliance, based in the San Francisco Bay Area. She grew up in housing projects near an industrial pollution corridor in East Los Angeles. The experience of cancer in her family led her to focus on preventing and reducing local industrial pollution and to advocate for policies to protect vulnerable communities. Jessica has worked for over 20 years as an environmental justice and climate organizer in a variety of urban, rural, and indigenous communities throughout California and Arizona. Her focus is mentoring young organizers and building new leadership for energy democracy to fight for a just transition and bring, “Clean Power to the People!”
Jessica started as a youth with the Environmental Justice and Climate Change Initiative in 2003, working with organizations across the U.S. on issues of climate justice. Since then she has battled various polluting corporations; PG&E’s gas fired power plant in Bayview Hunterspoint, the Richmond Chevron Oil Refinery and many others.
She currently promotes equity in clean energy as the coordinator of the East Bay Clean Power Alliance, which has advanced local clean energy solutions by establishing a Community Choice program; Ava Community Energy, formerly known as East Bay Community Energy, a public energy services provider agency that is providing electricity for ~2.1 million people in Alameda County and San Joaquin county cities; Tracy and soon Stockton and Lathrop, CA. This keeps electricity revenues local, by replacing PG&E in providing electricity. Since June 2019, we have advocated for Ava Community Energy to provide millions in funding and resources towards advancing clean energy programs like energy efficiency, electrification, community innovation grant funding and other equitable priorities for environmental justice communities. We advanced a policy in collaboration with labor for Ava Community Energy to jumpstart a just transition to true clean energy solutions with a Local Development Business Plan--A roadmap for a Green New Deal for communities throughout Alameda and San Joaquin county cities.