Why Climate Justice Requires Community-Owned Renewable Energy

During Joe Biden’s presidency, environmental justice—that is, policy that directly counters environmental racism and benefits communities of color and the least well-off—has gained unprecedented prominence.

But will low-income communities and communities of color actually benefit from federal investments?…The sense of funding uncertainty is palpable.

The Justice40 Initiative, for example, commits multiple agencies—especially the federal Departments of Agriculture and Energy, and the US Environmental Protection Agency—to the promise that 40 percent of federal spending should benefit disadvantaged communities. Then there is the “historic” new funding in the 2022 climate bill passed by Congress (confusingly labeled the Inflation Reduction Act, or IRA).

The case for federal investment in environmental justice is overwhelming. EPA data show that Black and Indigenous communities disproportionately shoulder the worst outcomes of resource extraction and pollution, with Native Americans most likely to experience land loss due to flooding, and Black Americans most likely to suffer from childhood asthma due to high levels of air pollution in predominantly Black neighborhoods.

But will low-income communities and communities of color actually benefit from federal investments? As one NPQ article noted a couple of years ago, the devil is in the details. The sense of funding uncertainty is palpable.

Despite “historic” federal investments, many community members feel weary from bearing the disproportionate impact of the climate crisis, persistent discrimination within environmental nonprofits, and inadequate infrastructure to access federal resources. Whether the promises of Justice40 or the IRA are realized is not just about communities receiving grants but whether they can secure their futures by securing ownership over critical resources, such as renewable energy generation.

The Value of Cooperatives

Cooperatives in Black communities are—as B. Coleman succinctly put it in NPQ a year ago—a form of ancestral technology, meaning that cooperation has long resonated as a core value in African communities’ economic organization. That tradition is still seen in Black communities, particularly in the US South, where over 20,000 African American families participate in a network of 75 cooperatives known as the Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund.

From 2021 until 2023, I worked at that federation. My role afforded me the opportunity to gain deeper working relationships and inspiration while collaborating with icons of the Black cooperative movement in the South, including Ben Burkett and Shirley Sherrod. As a co-convenor of the 2023 Pointing the Farm Bill toward Racial Justice Summit, over 50 federation members came to Washington, DC, where they expressed their demands for racial equity in every title of the Farm Bill as farmers, landowners, and cooperative business owners. For many Black Americans, particularly in the South, advancing racial justice in federal funding means getting resources invested into the cooperatives they own.

A Missed Opportunity

But that is not always easy. An example of what can go awry: In September 2024, President Biden and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced a federal investment of $7.3 billion in rural electric cooperatives. This is the single largest investment in rural electricity since the New Deal era.

Renewable energy is not new to members of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA). According to the Bipartisan Policy Center, among NRECA’s 900 member cooperatives, 95 percent already use some form of renewable energy—including biomass, ethanol, hydropower, methane, solar, and wind. Today, these co-ops combined provide electrical power to about 42 million Americans.

I’m excited that many communities will experience expanded job opportunities, reduced utility costs, and decreased environmental pollution with these federal grants. But I also see a missed opportunity to promote racial equity.

Notably, none of this first round of funding will go to any rural electric co-ops in Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, or South Carolina, six of the 10 states with the highest proportion of Black American residents. This is not to say that communities in these states will not ultimately receive federal support, but in light of the critical role these communities have played in pushing the federal government to acknowledge environmental racism, the initial outcome is disappointing, and it speaks to the need for equity-forward policy implementation.

Signs of Environmental Justice Progress

Fortunately, despite federal bureaucratic missteps, there is good news. All over the country, emerging cooperatively owned renewable energy projects are developing models for achieving climate equity for Native and Black communities.

For example, Red Cloud Renewables, a Native-led renewable energy nonprofit in South Dakota, is using a three-year, $1.7 million grant from the US Department of Energy to weatherize and solar retrofit homes—with a projected 50 percent utility cost savings for residents.

Thanks to over 40 years of relentless advocacy by environmental justice champions, funding opportunities are finally emerging.

In California, Blue Lake Rancheria, a federally recognized tribal nation, has developed an independent solar grid; it is now using an $11.5 million EPA grant to sequester additional carbon by acquiring 250 acres of coastal land and 400 acres of forestland. These successes not only improve jobs and lower utility costs but also help Native communities advance economic sovereignty.

In the Midwest, the Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition, whose members include “hundreds of environmental advocacy organizations, businesses, community leaders, consumer advocates, environmental justice groups, and faith-based and student organizations,” shepherded the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act, which became state law in 2021. As a result of this effective coalition work, the Green Energy Justice Cooperative, formed by Black woman-founded Blacks in Green, has successfully launched a community-owned solar project that will allow members to “become co-owners of the cooperative and have a voice in the management and share in the profits generated.”

In the South, the Black Farmers Collective, in partnership with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, won a federal Clean Energy to Communities program award, which enabled it to get technical assistance to install solar panels at farms and churches in Florida.

Similarly, in North Carolina, Black woman-led EnerWealth Solutions has been leasing Black-owned farmland for solar production, distributed through the local utility company, Roanoke Cooperative.

These examples show the importance of cooperative partnerships with each other to access federal resources, increase income, and innovate new ways of promoting environmental equity.

Meeting the Moment

Thanks to over 40 years of relentless advocacy by environmental justice champions, funding opportunities are finally emerging. While the election of Donald Trump may slow this pipeline, for the moment, the federal government continues to announce grant opportunities.

The Office of Indian Energy Funding Opportunity Exchange recently announced a $25 million Tribal Clean Energy Planning and Development grant. Similarly, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, funded by the US Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), announced over $3 million for the Good Jobs in Clean Energy Prize. Both opportunities will remain open through January 2025.

Admittedly, the federal government has made so many environmental and clean energy funding announcements in the past 18 months that even the most digitally connected members of our communities could feel overwhelmed. I am concerned about whether truly underrepresented and disadvantaged communities can access these resources. Indeed, many probably have never heard about these investment dollars at all.

Community organizing is one step to begin to address this gap. To that end, this fall, the Federation of Southern Cooperatives and Black Food, Black Futures came together to cohost BlackOut, a nature-based, network building event for Black conservation professionals. Held in October at the federation’s 1,100 acres of Black cooperatively owned farm and forestland in Epes, AL, the conference used a variety of outdoor activities as the backdrop for facilitated dialogue to promote best practices, build trust-based partnerships, and provide technical assistance for the collaborative development of grant proposals. At this gathering, participants strategized how to learn from—and build on—some of the examples cited above.

The recent devastation caused by Hurricanes Helene and Milton across the rural South were gut-wrenching reminders that the stakes have never been higher. It is time to reconnect with Indigenous stewardship practices and renew investment in ethical, scientific research so that advocates can make informed decisions about how to create, source, and distribute, and employ emerging renewable energy products.

The cooperative efforts referenced here are only a few examples of communities coming together to address climate change impacts locally. Coalitions of communities committed to equity are best positioned to identify federal investment opportunities, collaborate to submit successful applications, and cooperatively share not only the environmental but also the economic benefits this moment demands.

The bottom line: Economic justice and environmental justice advocates cannot afford to merely tinker at the edges of energy, environmental, and wealth inequities. Instead, it is vital to lean into our interdependence to create and replicate successful models of accessible community ownership of the new energy system. Our survival may very well depend on the collective actions taken today.