Lauren Barrett

LAUREN BARRETT, then a graduate student at University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, received a grant in April 2022 to aid research on “Imagining a Sustainable and Smart Future: Innovation and Design of the Colorado Electric Grid,” supervised by Dr. Alison Cool. In recent years, federal and local state institutions have implemented an array of policies and programs in service of transitioning US energy systems away from fossil fuels in ways that are “just” and “community-centered.” The passage of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) in 2021 and the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) in 2022 have generated a historic influx of federal funding intended to foster a “clean energy economy.” Amongst this broader investment, the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP) has received billions in additional funds. WAP programs fall within the scope of the Biden Administration’s Justice40 initiative, in which all relevant programs must ensure that 40% of the overall benefits of federal investments flow to “disadvantaged communities.” For the Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP), the political goal of creating clean, just, and community-centered energy systems is largely dependent on interventions in peoples’ homes (mobile, single-family, and multi-family homes). This dissertation research, based on 12 months of in-depth ethnographic research with Colorado’s Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP), follows energy professionals as they seek to implement decarbonization initiatives in the form of beneficial electrification measures (i.e. by installing air-source heat pumps, electric water heaters, and solar) in such homes across the state. It argues that these encounters between energy professionals and income-qualified residents provide important perspectives on what it means to integrate new electric appliances and technologies within the preexisting assemblages of human and non-human relationships, materialities, policies, and daily rhythms that represent “home.”