Why the future of clean energy depends on upholding energy as a civil right

In a striking image shared during a presentation to the Energy Consumers of Australia, a highway runs through the middle of Austin, Texas, splitting the city in two during the massive storms of 2021.

One side of the highway is shrouded in darkness, whilst the other is brightly lit.

“The left side of the photo is representative of a low-income community, primarily people of colour … and on the right side are the more affluent, they tend to be majority white,” says Shalanda Baker, Vice Provost for Sustainability and Climate Action at the University of Michigan, and a former Director of Energy Justice and Equity under the Biden administration.

The image encapsulates a core warning from Baker: the clean energy transition, if not guided by justice, risks reproducing the harms and inequities of the fossil fuel era.

In the United States, one in three households experiences energy insecurity, and the environmental burdens of industry and the energy system fall predominantly on low-income communities and communities of colour.

“Over half of black households and almost half of Latinx households and over 60% of native households are energy insecure,” Baker told the SwitchedOn Australia podcast. “That’s a very dangerous place to be.”

In her professional work Baker aims to make visible the invisibility of energy hardship in both public discourse and policy. But it’s her personal experience of energy insecurity that gives her a powerful insight into its impacts, and emboldens her professional advocacy for energy justice.

“My own lived experience really parallels that of so many Americans,” she says.

Baker remembers using a refrigerator to get a blast of cool air in summer, and an oven to warm her childhood home.

And she argues it’s not just the invisibility that’s a problem, it’s the structure of the system itself. “People don’t think about the design and structure of the energy system unless they’re paying way too much for it, or it’s creating a burden for them, or unless they’re without it.”

To Baker, energy is not just a commodity – it’s a civil right. The ability to safely and affordably access power is, she argues, essential to life, health, comfort, education and opportunity. 

“Energy connects to nearly every aspect of life,” she says. “That is where you can think about how rights emerge, how opportunities emerge, and how there could be opportunities for prosperity and liberation through the design of the energy system itself.”

Baker sees a risk of repeating the past mistakes of the fossil fuel industry in the rapid push to decarbonise. “The diversity of our country and people of colour are underrepresented in the clean energy workforce…they’re also not getting the benefits of our energy transition.”

She stresses that hundreds, if not thousands, of decisions are made every day that shape household-level outcomes. “We need to start thinking about those decisions and structural concerns before they become an issue at the household level.”

As Australia progresses through its own clean energy transition under the Albanese government, Baker’s insights offer a timely and urgent perspective. Like the U.S., Australia faces rising energy costs, reliability concerns, and a shift that threatens to leave behind regional and low-income communities.

While the federal government has committed to decarbonisation and clean energy investment, Baker’s message is clear: how we transition matters just as much as how fast.

Baker says we need to see the energy system holistically—not just in terms of rooftop solar or household bills, but in the way we design infrastructure, where we place transmission lines, and how electricity arrives in the home—whether it’s consistent, intermittent, or affordable.

In her role for President Biden, as the Director of Energy Justice and Equity, Baker was instrumental in delivering Justice40, a key climate and equity policy that aimed to reverse the legacy of injustice by directing 40% of the benefits of federal clean energy and climate investment to disadvantaged communities.

“It wasn’t 40% of the spending, it was 40% of the benefits,” she emphasizes.

Under the U.S. Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act, the Department of Energy had $100 billion to spend across more than 60 programs which provided access to clean technology, job creation, pollution reduction, and decreased energy burdens.

“Every single dollar of that had to have a Justice 40 component, and a community benefit plan.”

Baker was heartbroken when the Trump administration dismantle the entire Office of Energy Justice and Equity and rescinded all the community benefit plans.

“I would say we were about five years still away from really seeing benefits on the ground.”

Despite the policy rollback and a likely fall in clean energy investment under the new U.S. administration, Baker says the Trump administration isn’t the end of the story. 

“The current administration is likely going to burn down a lot of structures…but these systems were already imperfect…we have an opportunity to really build a system from scratch.”

“The Justice 40 initiative landed within a system that itself had created so much harm, and I was trying to make it work within a system that wasn’t really designed for justice, liberation, freedom, equity.”

Baker remains hopeful and committed. For the next four years, she says she’ll focus on finding ways to do things differently:

“How can we do this differently in a way that brings everyone to the table, and not just in terms of participation and asking their opinion, but economically.”

In Australia, where regional and Indigenous communities are increasingly on the frontlines of energy development, from solar farms and transmission lines to critical minerals mining, Baker’s call to action has clear relevance.

This moment in time, she says, demands more than avoiding harm. It requires that economic and health benefits flow directly to those communities that have long borne the greatest burdens.

“We’re building the energy system that’s going to last for the next 100 years, 150 years,” Baker reminds us. “We have a real opportunity to do it differently this time around.”

You can listen to the full interview with Baker in the latest episode of the SwitchedOn Australia podcast.