Martin Luther King Jr Day
Energy Democracy Convergence
January 17, 2021
11:00 - 4:00 PM
Watch it online!
Convergence Schedule
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11:00-12:30 Session 1 | Assessing our Movement Landscape & Defining Energy Democracy
This opening session will open up the convergence, its purpose and will include a panel of national energy democracy leaders and local climate and environmental justice leaders who will share their assessments of current opportunities and risks at the national and state level in order to frame a discussion about where we are at in the climate and environmental justice movement.
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12:30-1:00 - Break
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1:00-2:30 Session 2 | Assessing the Path Forward, False Solutions, Frameworks & Principles
The second session will explore the difference between true and false solutions when we are considering how we must mitigate the impacts of the climate crisis now and transform our current extractive, racist, capitalistic systems. Starting off the conversation with frameworks created by our environmental and energy justice brethren at the national and international level including the Jemez Principles, the Equitable and Just Climate Platform, and Free and Prior Informed Consent to evaluate proposals and set standards for public policy proposals, we’ll discuss how we might assess proposals in New Mexico for a truly just transition. We will explore the false solutions being proposed for our communities and how they believe we need to organize for community-based/power shifting solutions instead. The purpose is to explore how we can work together to build power and work against forces that aim to co-opt and divide us or marginalize us – and get clear about what we are working for!
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2:30-3:30 Session 3 | 2022 Legislative Agenda & Calls to Action
In this session we'll explore actual proposals on the table including false solutions like hydrogen and carbon markets.
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3:30-4:00 Closing
Participants will get to have small group discussions and we will close the Convergence space.
About the Panelists
Janene Yazzie
Janene Yazzie (Diné) is a community activist from the United States and co-founder and CEO of Sixth World Solutions which works with Dine’ (Navajo) communities to develop projects, programs and policies that promote sustainability, environmental justice, and self-governance. She also co-founded the first Navajo Nation community-led watershed
planning program for local control in the sustainable management, restoration, and protection of natural resources through youth engagement and community capacity building. Her work has earned international recognition for advocating for Indigenous Rights.
Cheyenne Antonio
Cheyenne Antonio is Diné from Eastern Navajo Checkerboard lands of Pueblo Pintado and Torreon, New Mexico. Cheyenne is a lead organizer with the Red Nation, a coalition dedicated to anti-capitalist and decolonial liberation for Native Peoples and a community organizer for her Eastern Dine community. Cheyenne brings awareness and education on addressing colonial violence of fracking across Dinetah and how fracking contributes to health inequities and threat to sacred sites/culture for Native people who are most impacted from hundreds of toxic pollinates, displacement, homelessness, sexual violence, and murder.
Alejandría Lyons
Alejandría Lyons is the environmental justice organizer at the Southwest Organizing Project. She is Xicana organizer from Los Lunas, Nuevomexico and a first generation college graduate with a Master's in Community and Regional Planning from the University of New Mexico. Alejandría first joined SWOP staff as an environmental and food justice intern in 2015, then later worked as the YES! Team Lead during summer 2017. Throughout her graduate career Alejandría held multiple positions on the SWOP board. She continued to work on environmental justice related topics through her position as Program Assistant for the Center for Social Sustainable Research, here she focused primarily on issues related to acequias and water rights related matters. Alejandría has also worked with multiple agencies to help launch the Bosque Cultural Healing Initiative, a restoration project located near Barelas and South Valley, which aims to restore both the bosque and the connection native burqueños have to this natural landscape. Being from New Mexico Alejandría understands the importance of protecting our land-based cultures while standing up against opposing industry. She has also traveled to several places in Latinoamerica to show solidarity for folks fighting against environmental racism as this relates to the battles we face here in NM.
Richard Moore
Richard Moore is a widely respected national leader in environmental justice. He currently serves as the Co-Chair of the inaugural White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council (WHEJAC). Richard has also served on the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) National Environmental Justice Advisory Council (NEJAC), where in 1993 he was the first elected Chair. Richard is the Co-Coordinator for Los Jardines Institute in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and national Co-Coordinator of the Environmental Justice, Health Alliance for Chemical Policy Reform, advocating for stronger, safer, and just chemical policies. He is also Co-Founder and Board Member of Just Transition Alliance and a Board Member of Coming Clean, Inc. Mr. Moore has served on numerous government and non-governmental committees and panels including Co-Chair of the National Council of Churches Eco-Justice Task Force, and Co-Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus National Environmental Policy Commission. He served as the Executive Director of Southwest Network for Environmental and Economic Justice (SNEEJ), in Albuquerque, New Mexico, from 1993 to 2010 after 12 years with the Southwest Organizing Project (SWOP) where he was the lead organizer and primary trainer of SWOP’s organizing model. He is currently involved with the Equitable and Just National Climate Platform. Mr. Moore received Health Care Without Harm’s highest distinction the Environmental Health Hero Award, at the national CleanMed conference held in Dallas, TX in 2016. In 2015, he was inducted into the Civil Rights Hall of Fame Hall of Resistance in Selma, Alabama. He is also a recipient of the 2005 Ford Foundation Leadership for a Changing World Award.
Subin Devar
Subin DeVar is the director of the Initiative for Energy Justice, a national research center that provides law and policy resources to advocates and policymakers to advance state-level transitions to equitable renewable energy. Prior to working at IEJ, he directed the Sustainable Economies Law Center’s Community Renewable Energy Program to promote a just and rapid transition to clean energy through community control of energy resources. Subin began his career working in the field of nonprofit communications. He first worked for the Tahirih Justice Center, a legal advocacy organization for immigrant women fleeing violence, and then M+R Strategic Services, a consulting firm serving nonprofit organizations. He has a BA and BBA from The University of Texas at Austin and received his JD from the University of California, Berkeley School of Law. During law school, he interned at Communities for a Better Environment, the Center for Biological Diversity, and the Natural Resources Defense Counsel. Subin is passionate about building hope that humanity can respond to climate change in a loving, equitable, and transformational manner. He lives, works, and plays in Washington, DC with his brilliant partner and inspiring daughter.
Trenton DeVore
Trenton DeVore is a 20 year old rebel from the Pueblo of Walatowa who’s currently seeking a BA in Indigenous Liberal Arts for Tribal Law. “As an MC, creator and liberator; I was taught to build relationships with love to spark creation while removing the preprogrammed ideals of self. Which lead to learning how to recognize as an Indigenous man the beauty of removing my toxic masculinity and embracing an array of art that is the compilation of life. I’m seeking growth through self education to develop a philosophical stance to better help our environment, physically, mentally, and emotionally. Simply, I hope to continue to uplift others on my journey. I was given a name in our language that I must continue to uphold not only for myself but our next generations to come. Truly I am humbly honored to have been a part of the resistance, upholding our ancestors on the front lines, and making connections with my people as if around a fire planning out next moves. I remain Radical, Rooted, and Indigenous.”
Crystal Huang
Crystal is the National Coordinator of the Energy Democracy Project. She is a grassroots community-builder with more than 10 years of experience deploying climate solution technologies. She has established a uniquely collaborative culture within the Energy Democracy Project since the Energy Democracy National Tour in 2018 that spotlighted the accomplishments and resource needs of energy democracy practitioners across the country. She works full-time as a Worker Owner of People Power Solar Cooperative in California. For her work building popular education on energy and power, she serves on the Resilience Hubs Advisory Council for “Toward Resilient California Communities” Initiative.
Corn
Corn is an Environmental Justice Organizer at PAA. They are a 25 year old two-spirit person working and living in occupied Tiwa Territory (Albuquerque). Besides their role with Pueblo Action Alliance, they also do other inspiring work with New Mexico Community Capital and the International Indigenous Youth Council. Lauren has over 15 years of lived-experience working with and organizing for Indigenous communities. Since Standing Rock in 2016, they have been diving deeper into different roles within the movement space and gaining lived-experience along the way so they can help their local communities across the Southwest region. Their inspirational resistance to colonization comes from their ancestors who took part in the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, the Apache Wars, and more recently, the continued resistance of their own Southwest matriarchs - 1680 to Infinity.
Mario Atencio
Mario Atencio is is the Vice-President of Torreon/Star-Lake Chapter (Navajo Nation) and a member of the Board of Directors for Diné Citizens Against Ruining our Environment, or Diné C.A.R.E. He has been involved in oil and gas development issues facing the Diné communities of the far eastern Diné Nation.
Josue De Luna Navarro
Josue de luna Navarro is an Associate Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies. His interest is in researching and developing solutions on issues regarding the climate crisis, immigration and public health. He also provides climate policy support for the Center for Civic Policy and the coalition of Power4NM and is the founder of the national UndocuHealth program for United We Dream. His work with United We Dream emphasized the importance of community health within the immigrant justice movement. In New Mexico, Josue is the co-founder of the New Mexico Dream Team (NMDT), the largest statewide undocumented-led organization in NM. With the NMDT, he directed a research study with collaboration with UNM’s TREE Center for Advancing Behavioral Health regarding the health impact of anti-immigrant and racist policies on undocumented youth. Josue holds a B.S. Chemical Engineering from the University of New Mexico.
