PNNL

“On the Journey to Justice with the Office of Economic Impact and Diversity” was presented by Shalanda H. Baker, Director of the Department of Energy Office of Economic Impact and Diversity (DOE-ED). Ms. Baker’s address was part of the Energy Equity and Environmental Justice Summit held September 28, 2022, at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, WA.

The in-person and live-stream audience included researchers at multiple national laboratories who have expertise relevant to the Administration’s Justice40 Initiative and how the approach may be implemented across the DOE system.

Justice40 is described by DOE-ED in its fact sheet as: “Low-income communities of color disproportionally bear the environmental harm and economic burdens of the energy system and do not equitably receive its benefits or have equitable access to decision-making processes. The clean energy transition presents an opportunity to transform communities. Justice40 is the tool to get there.”

About the speaker:

The Honorable Shalanda H. Baker is the Director of the Office of Economic Impact and Diversity at the U.S. Department of Energy and Secretarial Advisor on Equity. Before joining the Biden-Harris Administration, she was a Professor of Law, Public Policy and Urban Affairs at Northeastern University. She has spent over a decade conducting research on the equity dimensions of the global transition away from fossil fuel energy to cleaner energy resources. She is the author of over a dozen articles, book chapters, and essays on renewable energy law, energy justice, energy policy, and renewable energy development. In 2016, she received a Fulbright-Garcia-Robles research fellowship to study climate change, energy policy, and indigenous rights in Mexico. She is the Co-Founder and former Co-Director of the Initiative for Energy Justice, an organization committed to providing technical law and policy support to communities on the frontlines of climate change. Her book, Revolutionary Power: An Activist’s Guide to the Energy Transition (Island Press 2021), argues that the technical terrain of energy policy should be the next domain to advance civil rights. She received her BS from the United States Air Force Academy and JD from the Northeastern University School of Law. She obtained her LLM while serving as a William H. Hastie Fellow at the University of Wisconsin School of Law.

PNNL resources:

• Web: Energy Equity
• Web: Environmental Justice
• Brochure: Energy Facility and Infrastructure Siting Experience and Capabilities
• White paper and primer: Environmental Justice