Empowering communities through comprehensive community-based energy advocacy : assessing energy programs and advocacy in California and New Mexico

While energy permeates virtually all facets of our lives, from our pocketbooks to our health, issues regarding energy fail to garner widespread attention until price surges or blackouts impede everyday activities. With higher energy burdens and higher incidences of power plants in their neighborhoods, however, low-income and Latino/communities of color confront significant economic and environmental energy-related challenges on a daily basis. Energy policies not only impact the prices and provision of energy, but also affect the environmental, economic and physical well-being of communities. Sustainable energy policies that embrace renewable energy sources, energy-efficiency and conservation, and low-income energy programs, in conjunction with reliability and affordability issues, can significantly mitigate the environmental and economic energy burdens confronting low-income and communities of color, as well as the community at-large. Yet, community advocates concerned with issues such as sustainable development, housing, health, environmental justice, and economic development, to name but a few, often leave energy policy to the 'experts,' including utilities and regulators, which tend to overlook these issues, particularly with respect to low-income and communities of color.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2004

Author dc:creator

• Figueroa Aguilar, Roxanne de Lourdes, 1973-

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• J. Philip Thompson.

• Urban Studies and Planning.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/30109

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/30109