Rita Casaverde has been the Executive Director of the Diversity Coalition since 2022. She has long been passionate about environmental and social justice and has received a Green Youth Award from the United Nations.

Rita talks about the Diversity Coalition’s energy-related projects and how equity and climate intersect in powerful ways.

Richard McCann is the founding partner of M.Cubed, which provides economic and policy consulting services to public and private sector clients.   Richard discusses his extensive analysis that debunks the Solar Cost Shift myth, an argument created by the utilities over 10 years ago to combat customer-based solar installations.

Selena Feliciano is the National Campaign Coordinator for the Energy Democracy Project, leading their REFOCUS campaign, which is short for “Reimagined Energy for Our Communities, US.”   She discusses the best ways to activate energy justice to support the health and well-being of our communities.

Roger Lin, a senior attorney from the Center for Biological Diversity, is an important advocate in proceedings at California Public Utility Commission as well as the California Energy Commission. 

He examines the importance of quantifying the non-energy impacts of new projects and policies on equity and environmental justice as we transition to cleaner energy sources. 

Jessica Tovar, Energy Democracy Director at the Local Clean Energy Alliance, discusses policies to protect vulnerable communities from the toxic effects of industrial and energy generation pollution corridors.

Alexis Sutterman, Senior Policy Manager at Brightline Defense, discusses why we really do need a stronger and more justice-oriented government to be doing its job in regulating investor-owned utilities.