Erin Baker Gives TEDx Talk on Embedded Racism in Our Energy System

Erin Baker, professor of mechanical and industrial engineering and faculty director of the Energy Transition Initiative, recently presented a TEDxAmherst talk, “Energy Justice: Who Gets Listened to?,” examining how our current energy system is structurally racist and disproportionately impacts lower income households, as well as what we can do to combat these issues.

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TEDx programs are independent, locally sponsored events that occur around the world and are “created in the spirit of TED’s overall mission to research and discover ‘ideas worth spreading.

Baker also recently participated in a plenary panel at the 2021 conference of the U.S. Association for Energy Economics, entitled “Promised Technology Solutions: Where are they?” Along with Jessika Trancik of MIT and Kelly Sims Gallagher of Tufts, she discussed the rapid improvements seen in the last few years in key technologies such as offshore wind, solar and batteries. She urged attendees to “plan for innovation, with stronger climate goals and equity-focused co-design of technological solutions.”

These appearances follow her being featured in a recent Time magazine story about New Bedford fishermen opposing an offshore wind energy project known as Vineyard Wind. The Time story noted that climate change has given fishing workers an impossible choice – either fight offshore wind in spite of a dangerously changing climate or embrace an encroaching industry that’s part of the climate solution.

Working at the intersection of engineering and economics, Baker’s research centers on decision making under uncertainty applied to energy and the environment, with a focus on publicly funded energy technology research and development portfolios in the face of climate change and energy justice. Her work has appeared in many leading academic journals, including Science, Nature Energy, Operations Research and Climatic Change.