BY ROBERT BITNER
When Jason Ketchum, vice president of commercial, rates and regulatory affairs for ONE Gas, stepped onto the platform at TEDx El Paso in February, he stood in front of a child’s drawing of a house. It was simple, an image everyone could relate to. And that was the point.
Ketchum wasn’t at TEDx to give a ONE Gas sales pitch, recite the latest energy statistics or deliver an elaborate PowerPoint presentation. His goal: Talk about what that simple drawing of a house represents and explore how—through the just distribution of energy—it becomes a home for anyone who lives there.
Ketchum pointed out that everyone can play a role in working toward a cleaner, safer environment. They only need to remember the four walls of this house—affordability, reliability, safety and the environment—and consider what affordable, reliable, safe and cleaner energy really means for their homes, their communities and their world.
The presentation came about through ONE Gas’ involvement in El Paso’s business community. Liz O’Hara, manager of community relations for Texas Gas Service, a subsidiary/local distribution company of ONE Gas, sits on the board of directors for the El Paso Chamber of Commerce, which organized the TEDx event. “We had already been having conversations internally about how we could bring our messaging to a wider audience,” O’Hara said. “When the opportunity presented itself to put Jason in front of the TEDx audience, we took it. We wanted the focus to be on how we can move through energy transformation at a time when we’re also post-COVID and highly aware of costs and the financial constraints people are feeling.”
ONE Gas uses the term “environmental justice,” emphasizing how the just delivery of energy contributes to a healthier world and cleaner climate. Some companies have settled on “economic justice,” while others prefer the broader term “energy justice.” Regardless of the specific terminology, just approaches to energy service are all based on a common guiding principle: “We serve every community regardless of who they are, where they are and how much income they earn,” said Dan Lapato, managing director of state affairs for the American Gas Association. “Our commitment is to be there when they need us and to be as affordable as we possibly can be. That’s the core mission of what we do as an industry.”
Because of that commitment, one of AGA’s main responsibilities is to actively monitor state energy policies and their potential impact on customers. In addition, Lapato said, “We continue to build upon proven programs like the federal Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, as well as state and utility-specific programs focused on lowering utility bills. We do what we can to give individual customers relief.”
Affordability has been an important topic of conversation within the El Paso community, Ketchum said. “We hear a lot about environmental justice, but there is an economic-justice component as well,” he said. “We do not want to leave people behind.”
Over in Michigan, DTE Energy Senior Communications Strategist Eric Younan noted that climate change has a disproportionate and adverse impact on some of the most vulnerable communities. “Increasing customer access to cleaner energy sources and aggressively reducing greenhouse gas emissions can help to address environmental inequities,” he said. “That’s why DTE Energy has embedded equity as a cornerstone of our clean-energy transition, infrastructure investments and energy efficiency programs.”
Among those initiatives is a pilot program to bring community solar projects to three underserved communities within the DTE service territory: Detroit, Highland Park and River Rouge. The program is designed to help income-qualified customers and communities participate in the benefits of renewable energy: Selected residents in each of the pilot communities will be subscribed to 100% renewable energy for their home and will also receive an associated credit, which will lower their monthly bill.
“DTE has one of the nation’s leading energy efficiency programs for low-income customers,” Younan said. “We recognize the environmental and cost-savings benefits [that] energy efficiency programs provide our customers. That’s why we have nearly doubled our spending on low-income energy efficiency programs over the past few years.”
DTE is not alone. According to Lapato, natural gas utilities are investing upwards of $4.3 million a day in energy efficiency programs. “In addition, AGA, our member companies and low-income advocates are year after year advocating with federal and state governments for additional programs and funding to help low-income and moderate-income families with energy costs,” he said. “We continue to strive to strengthen our relationships with state energy commissions and governors’ offices to ensure that these programs are at the forefront when they talk about serving communities.”
No matter how compelling the message, though, it can take time for communities to come on board and work to effect change. As O’Hara noted, “Stephen Covey said, ‘Change moves at the speed of trust,’ and I really believe that. Gaining that trust through the relationships we build has to be a priority.”
Ketchum believes trust will come as companies operate an effective, safe and reliable business. People will take notice as you upgrade and maintain systems, improve efficiencies and, consequently, lower emissions.
As part of its approach to environmental justice, ONE Gas is exploring the use of renewable natural gas to reduce its carbon profile. “We serve in Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas, and there’s a lot of RNG feedstock in those areas,” Ketchum said. “In fact, we’ve identified over 175 Bcf of RNG annual production across our territory. We’re looking forward to announcing a project soon that would interconnect some of those projects into our system. Longer term, we’re also considering how hydrogen and other alternative fuels might also function within our current natural gas system to reduce the carbon profile even further.”
Meanwhile, Exelon Corporation’s Climate Change Investment Initiative is putting in $20 million to nurture startups working on new technologies designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and mitigate the impacts of climate change, according to Marna McDermott, director of sustainability. For example, she said, “Cambium Carbon is building ‘reforestation hubs’ in underserved communities with public-private partnerships designed to divert wood waste from fallen city trees, repurpose it into its best use and channel associated revenues into new tree planting. This will help reduce carbon emissions, pull CO2 from the air, and benefit the environmental, health and economic resilience of the surrounding community.”
On the social-justice front, Exelon’s Racial Equity Task Force and Racial Equity Capital Fund are helping to address the racial equity gap through workforce development, STEM education for underserved populations, minority-supplier and small-business support, job opportunities in underserved and under-resourced communities, and advocacy for more equitable government policies, including a just transition to clean energy.
As projects like this move forward and benefits are realized, it’s important that communities are kept informed and engaged. That requires dedicated effort.
“It takes a lot of active dialogue, a lot of focus,” Ketchum said, “and you can’t do it through a newsletter or an email blast or advertising. It’s going to work through boots on the ground and the relationships that we have in our communities and with our customers.”
“I’m very proud of what we were able to do with regard to TEDx El Paso,” O’Hara said. “TED Talks are about providing a platform for innovative thinking. We were able to go up there as a gas utility and say, ‘Hey, we’re a member of the community that genuinely cares.’ I think that was probably the most surprising part for people because it isn’t something a utility would normally do.”
O’Hara knows for a fact that the presentation made an impact. “We’ve received really good feedback,” she said. In addition, she had a surprising post-TEDx conversation with an attendee she would have previously described as “anti-fossil fuel.” Ketchum’s presentation led this individual to come away with a new understanding of the utility. “It allowed us to have a more genuine conversation and find points of commonality that I don’t think we’d have discovered had it not been for this presentation,” O’Hara said. “It humanized our company for that person.”
No aspect of justice—environmental, economic or social—exists in isolation. Each is part of a whole. As utilities work within a community and become known for their justice-centric efforts, they likely will discover needs that will lead to additional outreach opportunities.
Said Dan Lapato, managing director of state affairs for the American Gas Association, “As an industry, we should continue doing as much as possible to encourage conversations and relationships with the organizations that support and connect customers with local assistance programs.”
As an example, he said, “If a local organization is promoting a program or a resource for folks who need rental assistance or career help, those folks likely also need energy assistance. And if you’re having trouble paying energy costs, maybe you also need some help with food costs or medical costs or other issues that tend to compound. We need to be connecting those customers with all of the resources that are available. If there are opportunities for us to help direct our customers—not just to an energy-savings or energy-assistance program but also to other programs—that can be a huge benefit for the customers we serve.”
For more ideas regarding innovative and effective community outreach, Lapato recommends contacting AGA for resources. “We look at what utilities are doing proactively across the country, and we help support our members as they work to continue to improve the way they serve their communities,” he said. “We’re constantly evaluating and looking at best practices across the country. And then utilities take that data and information that we collect and take it to the next level, developing policies and programs that lessen the energy burden and lessen energy demand.”
To contact Lapato, call 202/824-7122 or email dlapato@aga.org.
