Energy infrastructure is an often-overlooked site of design, governance, and repair. The power plants, substations, transmission corridors, and industrial waterfronts that sustain life in New York City remain largely invisible to those who benefit from them, even as they profoundly shape neighborhoods, public health, and ecological futures. For decades, the burdens of energy production have been concentrated in the city's working-class communities of color, while decisions about energy investment, ownership, and governance have remained distant from public control. As the federal government has fully retreated from climate action and New York State has rolled back implementation of its landmark climate law, questions of power—both electrical and political—have become increasingly urgent.
But alongside these failures, New York also holds uncommon tools for transformation: the largest public power authority in the nation, municipal leadership positioned to advance public approaches to energy at scale, and robust grassroots organizing that has expanded in the void of government action.
As part of the Energies of Repair installation in the CFA Lab: Repair – Democracy and Urban Spaces exhibition, this symposium brings together these different actors and scales of agency and power into a single conversation, asking what it takes—across institutions, communities, and design fields—to transform energy systems from sites of extraction into instruments of repair.
Where should collective organizing power be directed in this moment? How can communities challenge narratives that frame renewable energy and environmental justice as “unaffordable,” while ignoring the social, economic, and environmental costs of the fossil fuel status quo? And what forms of public ownership, democratic governance, and community stewardship are needed to accelerate climate action while addressing long-standing inequities?
Speakers:
Daniel Chu, Senior Energy Planner, New York City Environmental Justice Alliance
Annel Hernandez, Public Utility Advocate, Mayor’s Office of Climate & Environmental Justice (MOCEJ)
Dariella Rodriguez, Director of Community Development, The POINT CDC
Claire Valdez, Assembly Member, 37th Assembly District
More speakers to be announced.
