Despite billions in federal aid, many Native American tribes still live in energy poverty. One organization hopes to change that.
Chéri Smith is a descendant of the Mi'kmaq Nation, native to northeastern North America. She has worked in clean energy for most of her career, but it took a 2016 visit to the Northern Cheyenne Reservation in Montana to understand the severity and persistence of energy poverty on tribal lands.
For 14% of households on tribal lands, electrification isn’t about replacing gas appliances with electric ones. It’s about having electricity at all. Chéri launched the Alliance for Tribal Clean Energy in 2016 to change that reality.
This week on With Great Power, Chéri explains why – despite a historic commitment of federal funds for clean energy development – tribes still face significant hurdles to building clean energy projects. The Alliance is working with philanthropic donors to raise $100M for the Indigenous Power and Light Fund for Energy Sovereignty to address those challenges.
This podcast is produced by GridX in partnership with Latitude Studios. GridX is the Enterprise Rate Platform that modern utilities rely on to usher in our clean energy future.
Brad Langley: Chéri Smith is a descendant of the Mi'kmaq Nation, a federally recognized tribe in the Northeast.
Chéri Smith: The Northeast tribes tend to be very checkerboarded. We don't have these big reserves, right? We have little pieces that are disjointed and they tend to be close to other city centers.
Brad Langley: Back in 2016, Chéri visited another tribe, the northern Cheyenne in Montana. The poverty she saw during that visit changed her life.
Chéri Smith: I was profoundly impacted by that visit. It pained me so much to see that this was so induced by the high cost of energy and the lack of access to anything other than fossil fueled energy that was wielded by big corporations that did not have these tribes best interests at heart. So that was the beginning of the epiphany.
Brad Langley: At the time, she was head of workforce and training development at SolarCity, which had launched the GivePower Foundation to install solar and storage systems in communities that lacked electricity. Chéri connected that team with the Northern Cheyenne. Then in June of 2016, Tesla announced it was acquiring SolarCity.
Chéri Smith: We were literally standing on the roof of the tribal building of the Northern Cheyenne, the Little Wolf Capital Building, installing a hundred kilowatt system, and we got the news that the merger was going to happen.
Brad Langley: She had hoped Tesla would help fund a larger effort to electrify tribal lands, but she was given a flat no. Still, Chéri stayed on as Tesla's head of workforce strategy, but in her free time, she founded a nonprofit called The Alliance for Tribal Clean Energy. In 2018, after decades working in clean energy, she quit Tesla to focus on building the nonprofit.
Chéri Smith: I realized that I had a calling that I could use the skills and my experience and the network that I had to help tribes to pursue clean energy as a means to mitigate poverty, build their resilience against climate change, and to restore economies that were lost through colonization. And I haven't looked back.
Brad Langley: $14 billion. That's how much in subsidies and incentives, the bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act made available to tribal communities for climate resilience and clean energy programs. It's an eye-popping figure until you learn why those resources are so necessary. 14% of all Native American households on tribal lands still lack electricity. We're talking about more than 50,000 people. That kind of energy poverty can come as a shock even to other native people. It certainly did to Chéri Smith.
Chéri Smith: I recognized that there was this moment in time and we had to pivot. We had to make use of this moment in time and set up a team to help deploy as much of that money as possible.
Brad Langley: This is with Great Power, a show about the people building the Future Grid. Today, I'm Brad Langley. Some people say utilities are slow to change, that they don't innovate fast enough. And while it might not always seem like the most cutting edge industry, there are lots of really smart people working really hard to make the grid cleaner, more reliable and customer centric. Today, my guest is Chéri Smith, the founder and CEO of the Alliance for Tribal Clean Energy. Together we dig into the complexities of using federal funds to build energy infrastructure on tribal land. We also get into how historical and present day injustices make energy poverty worse for tribes.
We started our conversation with the phone call Chéri received from Jigar Shah. They've known each other for over 20 years and worked together on solar energy workforce development at the Department of Energy. It was back in August of 2022, and Jigar was leading the DOE's loan programs office. And just a quick note, at the time, her organization was called the Covenant Tribal Solar Initiative.
Chéri Smith: He called and said, “the IRA is going to pass the house on Thursday. He's going to sign this on Tuesday. We need your help to let tribes know what's in this bill.” And I cried. I broke down. It was like—I still get choked up thinking about it. Like really, an administration of the US government has had the foresight and the ethics to consider tribal nations as valuable as they are and direct all this funding? And so we wrote a white paper and I realized that I had to change the focus of what Covenant was, which was grassroots projects and very important demonstration projects in tribal communities to demonstrate the literal and figurative power of clean energy to transform communities and lives. And that's when I changed the name to the Alliance. And we have since helped tribes to receive almost $500 million in federal funding for clean energy initiatives. That in itself--whether IRA goes away tomorrow--that's huge and we're proud of it. But now the work comes to implement those projects.
Brad Langley: Given the history of colonialism and realities of energy access on tribal lands today, how does the Alliance approach the concept of a just clean energy transition?
Chéri Smith: For centuries? Now, tribes have suffered the effects of colonization, and one of the ways that oppression has been exerted on tribes has been through the wielding of resources like energy. Largely the grid, the things that make up the grid in our country have been built on the backs of Native American tribes and on their lands without their consent, there's 500KV lines going across so many reservations, and they're not even allowed to tap into that. And those injustices are what we're trying to not repeat in this next build out of the grid. And so self-determination is key. And tribes, they're sovereign nations. It's important for us to remember that and that the tribes be allowed to make decisions that benefit them and that we not have policies that hinder that. And tribes are really good partners for those looking to build utility scale projects. Because of the land remaining in our country that's suitable for utility scale development, a great percentage of it rests on tribal lands. Our job, we find ourselves in that position if we're asked by the tribes to be in that position of buffer between developers, between the feds and the tribes, between other kinds of service providers, between utilities and the tribes. And that's where our subject matter experts come in and our tribal engagement team comes in and makes sure that the tribes are leading, that they are making decisions and then procuring resources as it suits them, not the other way around.
Brad Langley: So let's get into the how, a little bit around the indigenous power and light fund for energy sovereignty. You launched this fund last fall as a way to support tribes that want to take advantage of federal funding for renewable energy development. The funding total is around $14 billion in subsidies and incentives, which is an impressive number. What does that cover and why still despite that amount, does it still leave a formidable funding gap for tribes moving forward?
Chéri Smith: Yes. So that money is, I cried because of how much it was, but it's kind of bittersweet in a way because there is a gap between what the federal funding pays for and what it costs to actually develop and deploy a clean energy project on tribal lands. And so this fund, we originally pitched it to all of our donor allies as an opportunity to unlock those billions of dollars. And it still can do that because a lot of those dollars have been allocated. But now with a Trump administration and the uncertainty of what's going to happen to a lot of that funding, the donors we're having these conversations of the 30 million that we've raised thus far in this fund and the 70 million we still have to raise, how is that going to be used if IRA goes away? Well, there's still plenty of opportunity and need, and it's the right thing to do to continue in this path towards a just transition. And so the funds can be used to build smaller projects versus feasibility studies and pre-development costs for larger utility scale. Let's do more, smaller microgrids and things that still have a major impact on a tribal community and have the funding be used for that. And it really remains to be seen, right? None of us know what's going to happen. In terms of what's left from IRA,
Brad Langley: And if I'm correct, you're raising the fund from philanthropic sources like the John D and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation among others. Why are you targeting those sources for the fund? Is there something specific about them that makes 'em a great fit for this kind of work?
Chéri Smith: Great question. So MacArthur, Hewlett, Lemelson, they're our steadfast allies that have demonstrated trust-based philanthropy with us and others. They are examples of what equitable grant making looks like. And that right there is the impetus for us to partner with them first to establish the fund. We seek federal funds on behalf of tribes, and we help them apply for those funds and we help them secure those funds. We run on philanthropy, and there's a couple of reasons for that. First and foremost, I can't have us subjected to the whims of administrations. We need to have steady cash flow and to give the tribes the confidence that we're always going to be here for them as long as we're needed. And the other reason is if I were to run on federal funding, I become a functionary of government. And part of our job is to hold the government's hand to the fire, when needed, and to be peers with them and have these conversations on a level playing field.
If I'm subservient to them and I'm their employee, I can't do that. And we're actively working with folks that we fully expect to be coming into the Trump administration to continue this because clean energy, it's considered a leftist liberal thing, but it's about economic development. It's about jobs. So we're going to see, I think, a more bipartisan approach to this work. And the fund is, we've done it with partners who we don't need to explain ourselves to. They get inherently the struggles the tribes have faced, why this is necessary, and they're putting up the money because they know it's the right thing to do. So the second tranches, third tranches of money, we're opening the eyes of impact investors of private banks, of other flavors of investment because it is a good investment opportunity to work with tribes. It's not easy. And that's part of the reason why we exist to offer Pathways to Trust is a program that we offer to corporations and anyone else that wants to understand how to develop equitable partnerships with tribes and to learn about how it's not business as usual. You don't walk into a tribal council chamber and speak as if you're in a boardroom on Wall Street. It's very different. And so we serve that role as a service, yes, to protect the tribes, but also as a service to those that want to be in right-relation but don't yet know how.
Brad Langley: One of the common themes that's been coming up on the show as of late is the complexity related to grid interconnections. I'm curious, from your perspective...talk about the expenses and complexities related to grid interconnections and what FERC could do to address those hurdles.
Chéri Smith: We have a really good relationship with FERC in this administration. Chairman Phillips and Nicole Sitaraman, who's director of the Office of Public Participation, and their staff have been so open and communicative and participatory in conversations about the burdens that currently exist in the system of interconnection. And we filed a petition in August requesting that FERC waive the interconnection fees in the way that they're currently requested to relieve that burden. And we've asked them to compare tribes to states in that regard, and that we have different indicators of commercial readiness than say, an Orsted, or a Vestas or a big company that wants to interconnect to the grid. These commercial readiness deposits are about speculation, and they're meant to eliminate the tire kickers in the queue that cause havoc when they decide, oh yeah, we're going to pull out that application. And that causes the whole pipeline of projects to have to be restudied to determine where they fit in the supply and demand on the grid.
Tribes are not speculating. When we come to the table and want to interconnect a project, it's because it is essential to our survival. It is to replace, for example, in the case of Hopi Nation, who we work very closely with, it's to replace their 85% of revenue that was lost when the Kayenta mine shut down. They need to replace that. So they're developing a 400 megawatt project. The interconnection fees were astronomical. And to preserve their place in the queue they needed to come up with $7.5 million. The tribe's annual budget is $16 million. So you're asking a tribe to compete with developers who have that 7.5 million in that little fifth pocket on the genes, right? No. So the argument here is that we're not speculating. There are other indicators of readiness. Everything from signing a tribal resolution to community engagement, to having tribal historic preservation studies committed. If a tribe's going down that path, they're serious about it. They're not kicking tires.
Brad Langley: I want to go back to something ... we talked earlier a little bit about funding gaps. And I'm kind of curious to get into more specifics about that. What's the reason for some of those funding gaps? I mean, are the tribes not able to use money from the IRA? Are these interconnection fees part of that funding gap? Maybe talk through where some of the funding gap constraints are happening.
Chéri Smith: So when you look at the cost of developing a utility scale project, the federal dollars tend to cover about 80%. So pre-development costs are not covered by the majority of the federal funding programs, but they are essential to the project getting done. And they include things like engineering studies, feasibility studies, geographical studies, interconnection studies, tribal historic preservation studies. Those are the things that you can't even apply for some of this federal funding unless those studies have been completed to the satisfaction of the agency making the grants. And so that's why this fund was stood up, was to ensure that that wasn't a barrier for the tribes because it's like Secretary Granholm at the Department of Indian Energy Conference last year stood up and said, Hey, we're making another 300 million available, and isn't that great? And I got a call from the Associated Press and the reporter said, aren't you happy about this? And I said, well, honestly, it's bittersweet because yes, it means more money is available, but once again, there's a gap. There's that delta between what it costs to build a project and what the feds are offering.
Brad Langley: So last question for you, and we try to make it a fun one. We call this show with Great Power, which is obviously a nod to the energy industry. It's also a famous Spider-Man quote, with great power comes great responsibility. So what superpower do you bring to the energy transition?
Chéri Smith: My superpower is being able to see across vast landscapes, literally and figuratively and vast networks of human beings, and identifying people who have a skillset beyond my own. I am blessed to be surrounded by some really brilliant people. And our org is founded on the Mi'kmaq principle of "etuaptmumk," which is two-eyed seeing, which is seeing through one eye the benefit of indigenous wisdom and lifeways and knowledge and ways of being and coupling that through the other eyes, seeing Western technology and resources and being able to meld the two and be in right relation with one another. And that's not always easy. And so I find having that two-eyed seeing is part of that superpower. Thank you for asking that question.
Brad Langley: Thank you very much. That was awesome. Well, Chéri, I really enjoyed our conversation. I really appreciate you taking the time to chat with us today.
Chéri Smith: Thank you, Brad.
Brad Langley: Chéri Smith is the founder, president, and CEO of the Alliance for Tribal Clean Energy.
With Great Power is produced by GridX in partnership with Latitude Studios.
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