All of us working on utility law, policy, and operation can choose to change our work in order to create opportunities for collaboration with more progressive social movements not fewer. To that end, I want to offer a reparative definition for utility justice inspired by the thinking of Ruth Wilson Gilmore and Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò.

Any queer person who works on climate and energy issues—utility issues, especially—in a technical capacity of any kind is a marvel. A statistical miracle. On my first day working on utility policy, I quickly noticed that I didn’t have any openly LGBTQ colleagues.

In current policy and investment strategy, building decarbonization is treated primarily as an appliance swapping project. This micro-approach misses the systemic nature of the reduction of natural gas demand explicit in the swap: drawing down demand is ultimately a natural gas pipeline network decommissioning project.