We Want Green, Too Makes Its MARC

By Monica Booker, Community Engagement Coordinator, We Want Green, Too

We Want Green Too (WWGT) made its presence known at the annual Mid-America Regulatory Conference (MARC) for the second year in a row this summer (June 7th-10th) in Madison, WI. As WWGT’s new Community Engagement Coordinator, I had the privilege of attending MARC alongside my colleague, Energy Justice Strategist Amani Sawari, and other utility justice organizations that represent the Community Energy Engagement Network (CEEN). MARC annually hosts an association of regional organizations of utility and energy regulatory agencies from 14 states, including Michigan, to share ideas and discuss regulatory and policy issues affecting their states, region, and the nation.

Getting Grounded: to be CEEN (seen) is to be loved

In preparation for the MARC convening, CEEN kicked off the conference by hosting a preconvening with 13 different energy justice organizations across the Midwest to break bread, share our issue areas, wins, and future visions for a just and equitable utility landscape.

Collectively, we were able to reimagine a world with no rate hikes, reduced energy burden, an end to utility debt and shutoffs, data center moratoriums, and so much more.

Into The Unknown

The first full day of MARC began with one of the general sessions I was most excited about: Women in Male-Dominated Industries. As a woman who’s continuously navigating male-dominated spaces, I was excited to hear from other Women. While the panelists took to the stage, I whipped out my pen and notepad to receive some Women-led wisdom, only to feel deflated yet unsurprised to see an all-white panel. Despite the lack of melanin on the panel, I was hopeful of what was to come.

The moderator kicked off the session by asking each panelist what their walk-out song was. This seemed like an unrelated yet fun way to start off the panel, but little did I realize that this line of questioning would become a pattern. Each discussion question that followed seemed to stray from the topic of being a Women in the energy sector. Instead, they reminisced about being collegiate athletes over 20 years ago and about who they’d have dinner with, dead or alive. As the session came to a close, I was ready with my question. The minute they stepped on stage, I wrote out “How do you, as a minority, advocate for and ensure other minorities (PoC, LGBTQ, etc.) are uplifted in the workplace?” But that was it; the session came to a close with no audience questions. This would be a continued pattern at MARC in which each general session would be panelists sharing their thoughts on the topic with little-to-no audience input after the fact. I couldn’t help but think, what would MARC be like if there were more room for group discussion during sessions and for panelists, many of whom hold the privilege and power of energy equity in their hands, to be challenged in new ways through intentional audience engagement?What if that engagement came from a ratepayer who experiences utility burden? Questions and imaginations like these ruminated in my mind as the conference went on.

The second general session: Keeping the Public in “Public Interest,” felt more grounded and intentional in its panelists and the moderators' questions. It was especially encouraging to see a representative from the Michigan Attorney General's office, who's been known to prioritize ratepayers when DTE Energy continuously demands rate hike after rate hike, speak about the importance of engaging the public. Afterwards, my colleague and I were even able to pull him aside and share who we were as employees of a Detroit-based grassroots nonprofit. These moments of pulling aside Michigan representatives of utility and energy regulatory agencies to share who we were and ask questions proved to be the most impactful. We were able to ask our questions, have our names and faces seen, and foster relationships. 

Sheep and Solar

Day two started with a variety of local tours for us to choose from, ranging from viewing the capital of WI, the University of Wisconsin–Madison, or even a walk around Tee Waaksikhomik (Lake Mendota). I signed up for the Shear Energy: Solar and Agrivoltaics Tour to view two solar farms. It was a short bus ride over to the first destination, where wemet two workers who shared an overview of the solar farm and then gave ample time for participants to ask questions. After hearing about their shared solar program for residential ratepayers, I was in awe and had to know more. I asked when and why they implemented solar for their residential ratepayers. They shared that their residents were asking for solar, and they listened to their wants and, as a result, began their solar pilot program in 2017. This made me wonder what it would be like if more utility companies actually took their residential customers' inputs seriously and not only listened to us but implemented our ideas.

After some additional questions were asked and answered, the fun part began: we were able to see the sheep on site whose job was to graze and maintain the solar site’s grass. They were shy but eager for a snack the minute some grain came into play. After a few more questions to the workers regarding the sheep, we all loaded the bus for our next stop to the second site, which hosted a small apiary (beehives).

Despite quickly becoming overheated in the muggy Wisconsin heat, I was enamored with the integration of nature and solar power. How beautiful could it be if we all had access to renewable energy forms that work harmoniously with nature? Sadly, my excitement came crumbling down after a conversation with a local residential Wisconsinite about the solar tour who informed me that the local utilities' use of the solar site for “shared solar” was nothing more than greenwashing and didn’t result in lower utility bills but the opposite.

When will utility companies stop co-opting and sanitizing residents' ideas and create actual renewable energy that’s equitable and prioritizes people over profit? Must we wait until the planet is too hot to handle for change to come?

Let’s make a CEEN (scene)

Feeling a renewed passion, I, alongside CEEN representatives, changed into our utility shirts, which highlighted data on electric and gas service shutoffs. Then, off to the Power to the People: How Regulators and Policymakers Can Break the Cycle of Energy Poverty with Targeted Affordability Programs session we all went. This was a timely session as energy poverty is a pervasive issue in the city of Detroit where WWGT operates, resulting in utility-shut-offs, as noted by Amani.

Another MI representative was present on this particular panel. She was a staffer with the Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC) Customer Assistance Division. She uplifted the importance of prevention and being proactive rather than reactive, and the need to utilize energy burden to better needs-based programs. She also candidly said that consumers aren’t aware of the MPSC and have a lack of trust. She highlighted the need for approachable materials to educate consumers and that even she “still has a lot to learn.” I found this to be yet another important moment to speak with her post-panel with my colleague to share who we were and offer ourselves as a sounding board when trying to create approachable materials for the average ratepayer.

Final Thoughts

Overall, MARC was an important opportunity to get a glimpse of what utilities and energy regulatory agencies in Mid America are thinking about and how that aligns with what WWGT and CEEN are trying to achieve. I appreciate being in such a space that, despite being around for decades, wasn’t always open to having a grassroots energy justice organization in the room. I hope that MARC reaches a point where not only are organizations like WWGT in the room, but we have the same power to shape it, whether that be through moderating or being a panelist. What could MARC look like if all 14 states had input on the convening from ratepayers who were most impacted by utility burden? I look forward to next year and being able to make more connections and ensure energy-burdened rate payers in the 48214 zip code feel not only CEEN (seen) at MARC but heard as well. To next year!