Energy Access is Energy Justice; The Yurok Tribe's Trailblazing Work to Close the Native American Reservation Electricity Gap

This discussion explores the roots of the Native American reservation electricity gap through a case study of the Yurok Tribe’s work to extend the electric grid to the Yurok Reservation in Humboldt County, California. Native American reservations are the communities in the continental United States most lacking in access to electricity. The discussion examines the Yurok Tribe’s three decades of leadership to build electric and communications infrastructure to support tribal success and sustainability, and improve the economy, education, health, and the environment on the Yurok Reservation centered on the Klamath River in California.

Yurok Tribe Planning Director Peggy O’Neill and Interim Executive Director Javier Kinney will highlight the Yurok Tribe’s commitment to building infrastructure access discuss key barriers to infrastructure development. Professor Catherine Sandoval will discuss her book chapter, Energy Access is Energy Justice: The Yurok Tribe’s Trailblazing Work to Close the Native American Reservation Electricity Gap, published in: ENERGY JUSTICE, INTERNATIONAL AND U.S. PERSPECTIVES, Raya Salter, Carmen G. Gonzalez, Michael H. Dworkin, Roxanna A. Mastor, Elizabeth Kronk Warner, Eds. (Edward Elgar, Pub. 2018). The book chapter argues that federal policies to fracture tribes, fragment tribal landholding, and funnel tribal resources to others erected and reinforce barriers to electricity access necessary to economic, community, and environmental health. Ms. O’Neill, Mr. Kinney, and Professor Sandoval will suggest initiatives to close electricity access gaps to increase tribal well-being, strengthen democracy, improve the environment, and forestall climate change.