Studying Tribal Energy Transitions: Takeaways from Our Recent Webinar
The Institute for Policy Integrity recently hosted a webinar titled “Tribal Energy Transitions: Impacts, Opportunities, and Research Ethics.” The panel brought together leading researchers and policy professionals to discuss the challenges and opportunities that the energy transition presents for tribes. Dr. Andrew Curley (University of Arizona), Monika Ehrman (Southern Methodist University), Dr. Julia Haggerty (Montana State University), JoRee LaFrance (University of Arizona), Dr. Bindu Panikkar (University of Vermont), and Jordynn Paz (Kestrel) presented their Alfred P. Sloan Foundation-supported research on energy transitions in a wide range of Native American communities, while Wahleah Johns, the Director of the Department of Energy’s Office of Indian Energy, explained how her office is assisting tribes with transition efforts. This blog post summarizes the key takeaways from each presentation.
Assisting tribal decisionmaking on low-carbon energy development
Dr. Andrew Curley and Monika Ehrman presented their research on the factors that contribute to the decisionmaking of tribes transitioning from oil and gas to clean energy sources. Focusing on their research design and process, they described their partnership with the Southern Ute tribe in southwest Colorado. Traditionally reliant on oil and gas development, the community now faces decisions about how to respond to the energy transition and remediate fossil fuel pollution on their lands. The multidisciplinary research team seeks to better understand tribal governance and to generate data that will help tribal leaders make these critical decisions. They do so through methods including geospatial modeling of renewable energy capacity on tribal lands, economic modeling of energy revenue streams, and legal research on potential issues arising from federal or state law for tribal energy sovereignty.
Curley and Ehrman emphasized that researchers in their position must respect tribal sovereignty by allowing the tribe to direct the research objectives and processes. At the same time, Curley noted, it is important not to simplify or overlook the multiple perspectives on these issues within each tribal community.
Mapping opportunities for renewable energy development
Dr. Bindu Panikkar presented her research on how new energy sources in Alaska’s Northwest Arctic Burrough can enhance sustainable development and sovereignty and address energy security in the face of rising fuel costs. She explained that her regional focus adopted the analytic frame of the Burrough’s 11 communities, who understand that a regional approach is more economically efficient than the current system of each community purchasing and transporting their own fuel (primarily diesel) and operating their own mini grids. Panikkar’s research aims to help the Burrough achieve its climate action plan by assessing opportunities for renewable energy development in the region and modeling the socioeconomic effects of investing in wind and solar generation. In particular, she finds favorable conditions for solar projects due to long sunlight hours and snow cover reflection, and high potential for distributed generation as the communities are not connected to the unified grid or road systems. She also highlighted the importance of community consent by describing how constructive she found attending local energy committee meetings and partnering with various members of the region’s tribal communities.
Assessing transition impacts on indigenous fiscal policy & community resilience
Dr. Julia Haggerty, JoRee LaFrance, and Jordynn Paz presented their community-based project focused on addressing the impact of energy transitions on the Appsáalooke (Crow) people. Located in Montana, the tribe is one of the most vulnerable in the nation due to its extensive reliance on the coal economy, the decline of which has resulted in major revenue loss for the Appsáalooke. The project analyzes how the loss of coal revenue impacts critical services and exacerbates social vulnerabilities among the Appsáalooke. The project also aims to construct a collective history of why coal failed to provide a sustainable economy for the tribe. Panelists described the difficulty of even having conversations about the energy transition in a place where so many people’s livelihoods are tied to the coal industry. They emphasized that discussions of energy transitions must be informed by the community’s past trauma and prioritize the urgent survival needs of community members.
How the DOE Office of Indian Energy is assisting tribal energy development
Wahleah Johns, the Director of the Office of Indian Energy Policy and Programs at the Department of Energy and a member of the Navajo Nation, provided an overview of her office’s efforts to assist tribes with developing energy projects. Since its creation around a decade ago, the Office has distributed $120 million to 210 tribal energy projects and completed over 400 technical assistance requests. At $58 million, the office’s budget is now the largest it has ever been. Johns explained that the office’s core activities fall under three main buckets: financial assistance to tribes pursuing commercially viable energy projects, technical assistance at no-cost for specific projects, and education and capacity building programs for tribes. Outside of these mandates, the office fosters collaboration between federal agencies and tribes to engage in long-term energy planning and identify additional funding sources.
Johns also highlighted two areas in which research from the academic community could assist her office’s work. First, she said that more granular information on unelectrified homes and unreliable power on tribal lands would be helpful. Second, she noted that her office would benefit from research into the views of the 574 federally recognized tribes on implementing recent climate legislation, particularly in relation to mining for critical minerals on tribal lands.
~
The webinar brought together a range of disciplinary and geographic perspectives to highlight the ways that tribes are navigating the energy transition. This was the first webinar in our series on energy justice research supported by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Stay tuned for upcoming events!
