• About
  • Which Energy Mix is this?
  • Contact
Celebrating our 1,000th edition. The climate news you need
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
No Result
View All Result
  FEATURED
BREAKING: 40% of Fossil Fuels Now Under Development Must Stay in the Ground May 17, 2022
Rocky Mountain Glaciers ‘Past Tipping Point’, with Some Expected to Vanish by 2030 May 17, 2022
UK Activists Block Russian Oil Tanker From Docking in Essex May 17, 2022
EXCLUSIVE: Bid to Revive Doomed Nova Scotia LNG Project Collides with Germany’s Net-Zero Plans May 16, 2022
3,800 Residents Ordered to Evacuate after Flooding in Hay River, NWT May 16, 2022
Next
Prev
Home Jurisdictions Africa

No Need to ‘Live Through Darkness’: Award Honoree Fights for Energy Equity

November 6, 2020
Reading time: 2 minutes

67% of Low-Income U.S. Households Face High Energy Burden

/pixfuel

 

Driven by her personal experience with energy poverty, a recent Energy News Network 40 Under 40 honoree is working hard as a senior policy associate at a U.S. community solar developer to ensure that ethnicity, language barriers, and income do not bar homeowners from accessing renewable energy.

Recently interviewed by ENN publication Centered, Nexamp’s Theodora Okiro spoke of how her own childhood experiences in Nigeria, where she and her family lived with energy poverty, were the inspiration behind her career in renewable energy, and her fight for a world with greater energy access and equity.

“We’re helping communities understand what community solar is and how it benefits us collectively, especially our low-income and people of colour communities,” she said. Okiro told Centered that Nexamp does not “participate in practices that perpetuate redlining”—such as requiring the submission of credit scores—and it doesn’t ask participants to pay enrollment fees or up-front costs.

In addition to working to break down the “access barrier,” Okiro, through Nexamp, is also committed to ensuring that potential clients are armed with knowledge, and can get the information they need in their own language.

And then there is the issue of trust. “There’s a long, endemic mistrust not just of authority, but also of utilities, in many communities,” Okiro said. “It’s really important to go to trusted community leaders and develop a relationship with them…to address a lot of the negative externalities that have impacted primarily low-income communities for decades.”

Also in Nexamp’s mandate: alleviating the historical mistrust many of its clients feel toward financial institutions, and deepening its economic contribution to communities by hiring locally.

Okiro was born in New York, but spent periods of her youth living with her family in Lagos, where they didn’t always have reliable electricity. “This doesn’t have to happen,” she thought then. “I don’t have to live through darkness.”

Now, those experiences have made her particularly empathetic to the plight of the families she meets in places like Chicago’s South Side—families who had “to choose between paying their rent and the power bill” while at the same time living in the shadow of lung-destroying coal plants.

“I think connecting those thoughts and seeing how the struggle is personal and collective really encouraged me to seek solutions to this ongoing issue about energy access and energy equity,” she told Centered.



in Africa, Climate & Society, Community Climate Finance, Demand & Distribution, Ending Emissions, Energy Access & Equity, Jurisdictions, Legal & Regulatory, Renewable Energy, Solar, United States

The latest climate news and analysis, direct to your inbox

Subscribe

Related Posts

Australia’s Climate Election: Voters Kick Morrison to the Curb
Australia

Australia’s Climate Election: Voters Kick Morrison to the Curb

May 23, 2022
193
Greenhouse Gases Trap 49% More Heat than in 1990, NOAA Index Concludes
Carbon Levels & Measurement

Greenhouse Gases Trap 49% More Heat than in 1990, NOAA Index Concludes

May 23, 2022
74
10 Dead, 300,000 Without Power as Sudden Storm Ravages Southern Ontario, Quebec
Severe Storms & Flooding

10 Dead, 300,000 Without Power as Sudden Storm Ravages Southern Ontario, Quebec

May 23, 2022
125

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

I agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.

Trending Stories

Australia’s Climate Election: Voters Kick Morrison to the Curb

Australia’s Climate Election: Voters Kick Morrison to the Curb

May 23, 2022
193
10 Dead, 300,000 Without Power as Sudden Storm Ravages Southern Ontario, Quebec

10 Dead, 300,000 Without Power as Sudden Storm Ravages Southern Ontario, Quebec

May 23, 2022
125
Newfoundland Offers Suncor $175 Million to Restart Terra Nova Offshore Oilfield

Newfoundland Opens New Round of Offshore Oil Bidding

May 19, 2022
198
Most Calgary Businesses See Little Prospect of Oil Rebound

Calgary Aims to Reinvent Itself as Fossil Slide Continues

November 25, 2020
988
http://www.greenpeace.org/canada/en/campaigns/Energy/tarsands/

Alberta Fossils Log Emission Cuts by Exporting Them

May 23, 2022
86
Greenhouse Gases Trap 49% More Heat than in 1990, NOAA Index Concludes

Greenhouse Gases Trap 49% More Heat than in 1990, NOAA Index Concludes

May 23, 2022
74

Recent Posts

HSBC to Phase Out Fossil Financing after 99% Shareholder Landslide

Critics Pounce, HSBC Disavows Exec Who Cautions Against ‘Unsubstantiated, Shrill’ Climate Warnings

May 23, 2022
60
ANALYSIS: Coastal GasLink, LNG Controversies Will Haunt B.C. NDP in 2022

B.C. Eliminates ‘Broken’ Royalty System, Offers Fossils a ‘Money-Back Guarantee’

May 23, 2022
52
Boston ‘Goatscapes’ City Park to Cut Fertilizer, Energy Use

ESG Investors Urge Livestock Industry to Diversify, Innovate to Dodge ‘Apollo 13 Moment’

May 23, 2022
45
‘Catastrophic’ Hurricane Ida Hits Louisiana at 240 Km/Hr

Study Finds ‘Ironic’ Link Between Reduced Pollution, More Hurricanes

May 23, 2022
59
World’s Biggest Insurer, Allianz, Drops Coverage for Coal Projects

$8.5B in Debt Guarantees to Help South Africa Phase Out Coal

May 23, 2022
34
Solar on Farmland Holds Promise for India’s Renewables Sector: IEEFA

Economic Opportunity, ‘Freedom’ Drive Red State Buy-In for Renewables

May 23, 2022
36
Next Post
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waste_heat

Colorado Utility to Retire Coal-Fired Power Plant 16 Years Early, Cut Emissions 90% by 2030

The Energy Mix

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Navigate Site

  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy and Copyright
  • Cookie Policy

Follow Us

No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}

2022 ONTARIO GENERAL ELECTION

KEEP UP WITH ONTARIO’S CLIMATE CHANGE ELECTION

election-checkmark
Get Election Notifications

2022 ONTARIO GENERAL ELECTION

KEEP UP WITH ONTARIO’S CLIMATE CHANGE ELECTION

election-checkmark
Get Election Notifications
The Energy Mix - The climate news you need

2022 ONTARIO GENERAL ELECTION

KEEP UP WITH ONTARIO’S CLIMATE CHANGE ELECTION

election-checkmark
Get Election Notifications

2022 ONTARIO GENERAL ELECTION

KEEP UP WITH ONTARIO’S CLIMATE CHANGE ELECTION

election-checkmark
Get Election Notifications
The Energy Mix - The climate news you need

2022 Ontario General Election

Keep up with Ontario’s Climate Change Election

election-checkmark
GET THE NEWS THAT MATTERS MOST

2022 Ontario General Election

Keep up with Ontario’s Climate Change Election

election-checkmark
GET THE NEWS THAT MATTERS MOST
The Energy Mix - The climate news you need

2022 Ontario General Election

Keep up with Ontario’s Climate Change Election

election-checkmark
GET THE NEWS THAT MATTERS MOST

2022 Ontario General Election

Keep up with Ontario’s Climate Change Election

election-checkmark
GET THE NEWS THAT MATTERS MOST
The Energy Mix - The climate news you need

Are you sure want to unlock this post?
Unlock left : 0
Are you sure want to cancel subscription?