“Extricating ourselves from self-destruction would have been impossible if we hadn’t changed

our mindset and our priorities, if we hadn’t realized that doing what is good for humanity goes
hand in hand with doing what is good for the Earth. The most fundamental change was that
collectively - as citizens, corporations, and governments — we began adhering to a new bottom
line: ‘Is it good for humanity whether profit is made or not?’” 1

I grew up heavily with religion (mormonism) playing a defining role in my developing

understanding of the world. In church-lead primary lessons we were taught that our time on
earth was all just a test for the afterlife. I vividly remember, as a second grader, walking laps at
recess furious about how unfair it was that I had to take a spelling test. I truly believed my entire
life's purpose was to pass this godly test, and thought it was stupid to have a test inside a test.
Now, I am not religious at all and do not believe any of what was so foundational to my initial
understanding of the world.

Considering the magnitude of this mindset shift and the impact it had on the future I saw for
myself it occurred relatively quickly, in the span of 2 years. The fact that I successfully redefined
my guiding values and beliefs and restructured my life accordingly, as a tweenager, gives me
assurance that it is possible for people to undergo the mindset shifts required to productively
combat this climate crisis. Of course, this doesn't mean that it will be easy, it only proves that it
is possible.

At the age of 8, I watched my parents divorce play out and, for the next 10 years, I lived my life
in a constant flux state alternating between their respective households 3+ times a week. One of
the many differences between my parents is their perception of the impact of individual actions
in the context of the climate crisis. My mom is your classic eco-freak, consistently walking,
biking and using public transportation, taking pride in the infrequency with which our garbage
can must be emptied, and always -always- nagging me to turn the lights off. On the other hand
the climate crisis impacts approximately 0 percent of my father’s day to day decision making. If
he wants something he just hops in his car, drives there, buys it (not thinking twice about how it
is packaged) and then drives right home again. Growing up suspended between these two
worlds gives me a unique perspective as to how we can effectively combat my generation's
biggest challenge.

Despite their 50/50 custody split, my mom was my primary caretaker throughout my childhood
and my perspective on the value of individual action in the context of the climate crisis is
modeled heavily after hers. She sparked my awareness of my own impact on the environment
as we spent a lot of our time and energy walking and biking (rather than driving, as I did with my
father) to the different places that we wanted to go. This shaped my own identity and today I
identify strongly with this, sustainability focused, east bay culture.
It is important here that I take a step back and acknowledge that, in the context of a society that
is so deeply polarized by race and xenophobia, the fact that the first assumption when it comes
to my “culture” is not a racial one is a demonstration of my privilege. My whitness is not the only
aspect of my life that has afforded me considerable privilege in my life up unto this point. I have
also never had to worry that my basic needs, including access to electricity, will not be met.

In conversations concerning transitioning systems of resource provision it is important to realize

that while I can talk about the importance of reliability, I have never been forced to truly
understand what it is like to not have these basic needs met. Understanding that this lack of
reliability has had much more negative, potentially life threatening, impacts on others is
something that I cannot directly relate to and therefore need to be especially aware of in the
suggestions I give. Ivan Penn, an author for the New York Times, documents the story of
Elizabeth Ellenburg whose health depends on electrically powered oxygen equipment. When
PG&E decided to implement a regime of routinely scheduled power outages to preserve other
grid members, she was forced to purchase (beyond her economic means) solar panels for her
roof to ensure that she would have reliable access to her life-saving medical equipment. 2

My mom’s installation of distributed photovoltaic (DPV) on the roof of my childhood home was,
unlike Elizabeth Ellenburg, a completely elective decision that sparked my interest in this field of
research. Until digging deeper into the social outcomes associated with the implementation of
DPV and other distributed energy resource (DER) technologies I assumed, due to the financial
privilege I have been afforded throughout my life, that these technologies had purely positive
impacts. Further research quickly proved me wrong with one professional, representing utility
ratepayers in California explaining, “Lower-income customers who cannot afford solar panels
are effectively subsidizing affluent homeowners.” 3 Although there is still much debate
surrounding the true social impacts of the proliferation of DPV Keith Taylor, a professor at UC
Davis that I interviewed as part of my research, argues that it is still a net positive impact. This
project pushed me to consider viewpoints that I had not previously been exposed to. 4

As a current engineering student hoping to work on the technological side of creating renewable
energy grids in the future, this research is deeply entwined with the career I hope to build for
myself. Different grid systems will require different levels of investment in the development of
technologies. Working to better understand the possibilities for the future of the energy grid on
the social/political/economic scale will help guide my interests on the technical side of things.

This project feels like a jumping off point for me and has exposed me to a field of research,
academics, and public debate I was previously not aware of. With this work I hope to reach
lawmakers who can create policies to incentivize change on the macroscale; community
members who are sick and tired their inability to effect change within the currently monopolized
industry; young people who are looking into how they can direct their career to positively impact
the environment; and professionals currently working at community choice aggregates (CCAs)
to encourage them to push harder for the reorganization of transmission infrastructure within
their own organizations.
I am young and new to this field of research. This will, in many cases, lead professionals and
academics to discount my ideas before fully considering them. While I am more than ready to
admit that there is so much more for me to learn, this is the freshest perspective they will ever
get; hopefully they will be ready to hear it.
Works cited:
1. Figueres, Christina. Rivett-Carnac, Tom. The Future We Choose: The Stubborn
Optimist’s Guide to the Climate Crisis . New York: Vintage Books; 2020

2. Penn, Ivan and Krauss, Clifford 2021 [cited October 10, 2023] More Power Lines of
Rooftop Solar Panels: The Fight Over Energy’s Future. The New York Time. Available
from: More Power Lines or Rooftop Solar Panels: The Fight Over Energy's Future
3. Penn, Ivan 2022 [cited October 10, 2023] A Fight Over Rooftop Solar Threatens
California’s Climate Goals. New York Times. Available from: A Fight Over Rooftop Solar
Threatens California’s Climate Goals - The New York Times

4. "transcript" of keith Taylor interview