Mini Episode: Jana Ganion

The Brightline Podcast: Season 2, Episode 8

Tune in to our newest episode with Jana Ganion, Director of Sustainability and Government Affairs at Blue Lake Rancheria. Hear more about how Blue Lake Rancheria has worked to build their own energy infrastructure through the use of microgrids.

Transcript:

Jana Ganion: What we're really trying to do is find solutions that are scalable, that are replicable, and that will result in deep equity for other Tribal nations and other communities and other marginalized people 

Aubrey: This is The Brightline Podcast from Brightline Defense. We explore environmental justice issues, or EJ issues, in the Bay Area and California, highlighting the work of community-based organizations, including our own. My name’s Aubrey, and today we are doing another special mini episode where we'll take a look at how one tribe in Northern California is building energy resilience in their community.

Jana Ganion: Well, as people may know, the history of Tribal nations in California is long and fairly tragic.

Aubrey: This is Jana Ganion. She's the Director of Sustainability and Government Affairs for the Blue Lake Rancheria. That's a federally recognized Native American Tribal government in Northern California.

Jana Ganion: Sort of coming out of periods of genocide initially and divestments more recently, the Tribal nations, Blue Lake Rancheria in particular, really have developed their infrastructure to be self-sufficient.

Aubrey: Back in the 1930's, the federal government began a sweeping program to connect rural parts of the country to the growing electrical grid. 

Archival: Electricity means running water on the farm. You can throw the old pump handle away. This pump works all the time…

Aubrey: But Jana notes that federal electrification never really delivered on Tribal lands. So, after decades of disconnection, the Blue Lake Rancheria looked to take control and build their own energy infrastructure.

Jana Ganion: The tribe has developed a series of fairly leading edge energy projects over the last 10 years. And these have primarily been micro grids. 

Aubrey: A microgrid is essentially a local electric grid that can run independently from the wider, national one.

Jana Ganion: And these are powered with solar photovoltaics and using battery storage as the medium to balance things out.

Aubrey: In other words, the Blue Lake Rancheria is using solar panels and batteries to make and distribute its own energy. And there are a lot of benefits for the community, including cheaper and more consistent prices for electricity.

Jana Ganion: The tribe also sees micro grids and solid electrical infrastructure as being economy-enabling. Since we built the first microgrid in 2016, 2017, we've had over 30 major outages in this region that the microgrids have helped avoid. So the micro grids have kept the power on and the lights on and the services flowing.

Aubrey: And in the face of more and more wildfire-induced outages, these microgrids are an important part of the Blue Lake Rancheria's climate change resilience plans. 

Jana Ganion: I think the Blue Lake Rancheria really was planning for and responding to those changing conditions early. And as a result, we've been able to build some projects that, with our project partners, have been really successful in filling that gap and kind of leapfrogging over where we were a hundred years ago to where we need to be a hundred years from now.

Aubrey: Their partners include Humboldt County, Redwood Coast Authority, and the Schatz Energy Research Center at Cal Poly Humboldt. In addition to assisting with microgrid development, the engineering team at Cal Poly Humboldt has also supported educational initiatives for the Blue Lake Rancheria's young people.

Jana Ganion: Creating this amazing, ecosystem where we can bring students into the mix in real projects and give them a chance to work on feasibility studies, to work on designs, and, and really get their hands dirty in the field. Really working toward that goal of providing a place where younger people and people who are actually maybe even transitioning careers can go and study this kind of climate smart infrastructure.

Aubrey: Local solar power generation is really changing the game in the Blue Lake Rancheria. But Jana sees lots of opportunities for more diversified renewable energy, like connecting with the offshore wind development in Humboldt that we discussed in one of our previous episodes. This could help support economic growth and climate resilience at the same time.

Jana Ganion: Because we are onboarding some potential big energy use new businesses and industry to this region. And because of that, we're gonna need more power. We can find the increased power we need through a combination potentially of upgraded transmission lines, distributed battery storage, more solar, and then the new wind farms off the coast.

It's going to be interesting to see how all of this comes together in its various puzzle pieces.

Aubrey: For Jana, working with others to put those puzzle pieces together is well worth the effort.

Jana Ganion: What we're really trying to do is find solutions that are scalable, that are replicable, and that will result in deep equity for other Tribal nations and other communities and other marginalized people that need these things, especially as the climate crisis is upon us.

It's been the honor of a lifetime to be able to work with brilliant people to move the relationships between Tribal, state and federal entities forward, out of a period of unimaginable trauma to a period of really, hopefully perpetual partnership. 

Aubrey: This episode was written and produced by me, Aubrey Calaway and our assistant producer Will Entwisle. Original music by Maya Glicksman Thank you to Eddie Ahn, Sarah Xu, Cecilia Mejia, and to Jana Ganion for sharing her story. This podcast is funded by the Environmental Justice Small Grants from the California EPA.

For more information about Brightline, you can visit our website at BrightlineDefense.org or on social media @brightlinedefense. You can also find a transcript of this episode on our Medium Blog.

Don’t forget to give us a follow and leave a review if you enjoyed the show. And stay tuned for more from us, wherever you get your podcasts. Take care.