Commonbound 2016

Winning transformational change requires diverse coalitions, tactics, capacities, and communities. NYRenews connects 50+ community, labor, environmental justice, environmental, and social justice groups. We will look at how we have tried to balance diverse theories of change and constituency - as we set out to make NY State act boldly on climate, create tens of thousands of good jobs, and build a more equitable society. We will discuss the challenges and benefits of bringing together diverse partners and navigating differences.

This is an "Energy Democracy for Beginners" session in which a few panelists draw out the vision and political framework of Energy Democracy and what it means in their respective communities and organizing work. They will each provide an example project and briefly share their perspectives on strategies for Democratizing Energy and building the energy democracy movement. Participants will be asked to raise questions and to provide additional examples they know about.

This session will explore race, privilege and equity and their connections to the energy democracy movement. Using popular education techniques this session will define concepts of Just Transition and local control of energy infrastructure to address energy and economic issues at the intersection of the global climate crisis and social inequity. This session lays a foundation for participants to develop an internal analysis around power, privilege and accountability to assist participants strengthen partnerships with communities on the frontline of climate change.

How can communities seize the opportunities of a decades-old energy system being rocked by distributed power? We will explain how boring-sounding policy and regulatory decisions about "net metering" and the grid are shaping the future of the electricity system, and how these boring-sounding issues have serious implications for an equitable energy economy. Participants will leave armed with knowledge of key issues and prepared to hear stories of communities taking charge, in "Grassroots Community Meets Energy Technocracy."

How can untapped community assets and the skills of our community members be the building blocks for community control of energy and our economy? In this session, participants will learn about community-led projects across the Bronx and Buffalo that leverage community assets to build healthy, resilient community and collective ownership and decision-making for low-income people of color.  In this session, participants will experience popular education tools and asset-mapping strategies that PUSH Buffalo and the Bronx Co-op Development Initiative/NWBCCC have developed in their respective communities to build power around energy democracy. Participants will walk away with a set of resources and exercises they can use to envision, plan for, and achieve energy democracy in their communities.

How does the community exert control over municipal and state decisions about our energy system? How do we arm and mobilize the grassroots to contend with regulators, career bureaucrats, and utilities regarding energy decisions. This session will feature conversation about challenging the power of both public and for-profit electric utilities and their regulators in order to shift decision-making power into the hands of the public. We’ll hear from leaders who have waged successful campaigns in New York, Washington DC, and New Mexico.

What are some of the new financing models being developed to propel community-based renewable resource development, from just transition zones, to non-extractive and full-spectrum capital, to anchor institutions, to divestment/reinvestment campaigns. How do these approaches scale? What are the barriers and what are people doing to create mechanisms to overcome these barriers? Participants will leave understanding how frontline communities are organizing a wide array of allies to engage in shifting resources and power on an unprecedented scale.

What are the mechanisms driving forward Energy Democracy? The demand and development of community-driven and owned clean energy has followed a number of models: from small community-based projects, to worker-owned and multi-stakeholder cooperatives, to community-shared solar, to municipal-level programs like Community Choice Aggregation. How does the community, especially low-income people and people of color, become organized and empowered through these different models? This panel will share their work with a variety of successful community-driven models.

The clean energy transition is happening. And rather than accept a corporate clean energy status quo, we can leverage our power as young people to transform our energy system to be localized, just and sustainable. This session will present opportunities to learn about existing campaigns and organizing strategies that advance a democratized energy system. From campaigns for a just transition to 100% clean energy by 2030 for your campus to campaigns that reinvest college and university endowments - we invite participants to build on these frameworks and strategize for themselves, and the movements we work in, how to move forward energy democracy work on campuses and in communities. By exploring ways that environmental, education, social justice and health advocates have come together in North Carolina to demand 100% renewable powered schools in an intersectional campaign, participants will walk away with ideas for how to bring this effort to their communities and have a platform off of which to engage by articulating their own strategic objectives and next steps.

How can we control and own the energy resources we depend on? How can we work together across class and race to build a more just and resilient future? Join this dynamic session for energy cooperatives and people interested in developing them to look at the opportunities before us, the challenges we're facing, best practices, and the ways we're making a real difference creating a more just and sustainable energy future for all. You'll hear from leaders working to build and grow clean energy cooperatives, to transform incumbent rural electric co-ops, and to utilize food co-ops and other non-energy co-operatives as a lever for advancing energy democracy.