“I see energy as the opportunity to both be in conversation but also bring real solutions that support people in terms of their social resilience, but also climate resilience and environmental justice,” said Diana Hernández, who gave a talk on October 1, 2025, during the University of Michigan’s inaugural Climate Week.

A sociologist by training, Hernández, who is an associate professor at Columbia University, has focused her work on building a more equitable energy system in the U.S. 

Citing the warming climate, with 2024 the hottest year on record, Hernández shared the International Energy Agency's finding that the production and consumption of energy—which is essential to our daily lives—produce 75% of greenhouse gas emissions, making it the primary driver of climate change. 

“This basically translates into all of the different ways that we are relying on energy to facilitate our lives, from heating and cooling to refrigeration and lighting and cooking. This is the software that powers our lives. It may operate invisibly in the background, but it is so critical in terms of how we actually live and exist, especially in the built environment,” said Hernández. 

She went on to describe the local and global problems that people face in meeting their energy needs, and that energy insecurity often has three dimensions—the inability to afford bills, housing deficiencies and inefficiencies, and coping strategies that can sometimes include the reliance on risky alternatives to meet needs, such as space heaters. 

To help understand how these dimensions play out in the face of energy insecurity, Hernández, alongside co-author of Powerless: The People’s Struggle for Energy, Jennifer Laird, conducted more than 100 interviews across nine states and Puerto Rico. 

With an estimated one in ten households experiencing energy insecurity, and about 40% of the U.S. population at risk, Hernández said that those most likely to experience insecurity are households of color, low-income, those without college degrees, those with children, people in mobile homes or in older homes, and those living in rural areas. 

She said that residential electricity prices and profits are going up, making it increasingly difficult for people to pay their utility bills, leading to a situation where families have to make difficult decisions about which bills to pay. 

“It’s actually the people that are paying much higher utility bills based on these rates, and the truth is that when energy intersects with poverty and inequality, people are basically suffering,” said Hernández, adding that people want to pay their bills, and often pay what they can to avoid a utility disconnection. 

Hernández said that there are affordability strategies that can help ease the burden, such as percentage of income payment plans, and emphasized the importance of providing energy security for a better future. 

“Can we imagine this for the millions of households that are experiencing the economic and physical challenges of energy insecurity? Do we feel like they are deserving? Do we feel like this is possible? What are the barriers of our imagination, of the current policy landscape, that we have to kind of unlock, untangle and do differently in order to get to this?” Hernández asked. 

After her talk, Hernández engaged in a fireside chat with School for Environment and Sustainability (SEAS) Associate Professor and Tishman Professor of Environmental Justice Tony Reames, in a discussion that ranged from her experiences as a PhD candidate at Cornell University, her emphasis on doing work that’s transformative for people’s lives, and the importance of local climate action that looks beyond goals and on implementation. 

Watch the full lecture and fireside chat