TALK'M UP

One hundred percent of TN Congressional District 5 is served by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), which is unique in the nation as the largest public power entity in the US. owned and governed by the federal government.

Birmingham Alabama is home to the country’s single largest producer of greenhouse gas pollution, for 9 consecutive years. Alabama’s Jefferson County has received an “F” grade from the American Lung Association for its ozone levels,

Louisiana is the 4th highest emitter of carbon in the US, and is the 5th highest emitter of carbon, per capita.

KY is the 6th most climate-vulnerable state, and in a 13 year span, they faced 23 federally declared disasters, that cost tax payers over $1.5B.

Climate displacement has shaped Mississippi’s population. Since Hurricane Katrina, Mississippi has become a home for Southerners seeking to escape the impacts of climate disasters. This has influenced the state’s movement infrastructure, prioritizing mutual aid paired with civic engagement to engage and organize climate migrants.

Despite population growth, Tennessee continues to have some of the lowest civic engagement rates nationally. As of July 2024, Tennessee ranked 42nd in voter registration and dead last—51st—in turnout during the 2022 midterms. In the 2020 presidential election, over 3 million ballots were cast, equating to around 63% of registered voters, the highest rate this century—yet still 47th nationally Every aspect of civic participation could be energized by connecting it to local climate and energy efforts. Rising energy costs (a top issue repeatedly for voters in polling), combined with suppressive leaders ignoring an electorate with vast untapped potential, is an enormous opportunity.

Alabama residents pay the highest electricity rates in the Southeast and carry average monthly bills that rank third highest in the nation. An examination of 2024 federal filings from 100 of the country’s largest utilities found that none reported higher total residential electric bills, on average, than Alabama Power…a particularly acute burden given that Alabama is one of the poorest states in the nation. The Public Service Commission plays a direct role in this: it is the elected body charged with regulating Alabama Power and ensuring customers receive fair and reasonable utility rates. Yet many residents remain unaware that PSC seats are elected positions, or how much authority commissioners hold over the rates they pay every month.

In the River Parishes, or “cancer alley”, (which used to all be plantations lining the Mississippi River), 90% of Black people vote in nearly every election! This is because of what is at stake for them, and the investment some philanthropic institutions have made in organizers and leaders in the region.

Kentuckians broadly distrust a system they see as rigged for corporate donors, and organizers are using climate and clean energy as the entry point to bring disengaged voters back in, including an influx of voter contact attempts after historic flooding in July 2023.

Mississippi has the fourth highest voter registration rate in the country, but voter turnout suffers due to a long legacy of Black voter suppression. People may understand that climate change is happening, but connecting it to how the government responds – or does not respond to take care of its humans – and how voting and advocating for change could make a difference – is a critical element in order for us to build power together for climate equity.

Addressing climate & clean energy in Tennessee advances racial equity by addressing the unequal distribution of rising energy costs in one of the hardest hit parts of the country. Energy bills cost TN households more than most of country. Tennesseans spend more of their household income on electricity than residents of more than 40 other states. The national average for energy burden is below 4%, but in Memphis, TN the median energy burden is 5.6%. Predominantly Black communities face an even higher energy burden, for example in South Memphis households face an energy burden of over 7%.

Alabamians pay nearly a quarter of their earnings for electricity…the highest percentage in the country, according to an analysis by the think tank RMI. In Alabama, where the median household income for Black families is roughly $42,000 compared to nearly $72,000 for white families, those structural gaps translate directly into deeper energy hardship. This is especially true in Black and low-income communities, where older housing and systemic inequities lead to higher energy costs and fewer opportunities for efficiency upgrades.

The word plant is only in the Anglo-American dictionary, and it derives from plantation. Industry is primarily on former slave plantations where the descendants of those enslaved people continue to live today. They are disproportionately impacted by emissions.

In Louisville, residents living in Louisville’s predominantly Black neighborhoods have a life expectancy almost a generation shorter than their white peers across the city. These urban neighborhoods also see the city’s largest rates of air pollution and are the likely targets for future data centers and other heavy polluting industries like battery and rubber plants. Building and sustaining a coalition of multi-racial Kentuckians, united by their shared and lived experiences with climate change, is a critical opportunity to build power. Power that policy must acknowledge, contend with, and take into consideration when it is introduced and debated. From the hollers of Appalachia to the banks of the Ohio River in Louisville, our collective health and wellbeing is tethered together through our air, water, and soil

Nearly forty percent of Mississippi’s electorate is Black, with 2.5% latino, 1% AAPI, and 1% Indigenous. The multi-racial coalition we are building is impacted by every aspect of the failing democracy in Mississippi. Strengthening collaboration in every corner of the state will help strenthen our democracy.