Supporting tribal renewable energy at the California Energy Commission

Kelsey Freeman (she/her)
Hometown: Carbondale, Colorado
Major: MA in International Policy and MS in Environment and Resources, '25
Internship: California Energy Commission, Office of the Public Advisor, Energy Equity, and Tribal Affairs. Freeman is a Shultz Energy Fellow.

During her internship at the California Energy Commission, Kelsey Freeman helped launch a policy-making process to ensure that California Native American tribes can participate in and benefit from the clean energy transition.

I drove for a full day to reach the Tolowa Dee-ni’ Nation, winding through walls of dense pine and redwood forests before arriving at California’s foggy North Coast. There I joined California Energy Commission (CEC) Tribal Affairs team, Chair David Hochschild, and Commissioner Noemí Gallardo—as well as elected leaders and staff from several North Coast tribes—for a day-long roundtable. As I presented on CEC’s approach to tribal energy grants and facilitated a discussion for feedback, I felt such gratitude. It was humbling and exciting to help shape the processes and eventual policies aimed at ensuring that California Native American tribes can participate in and benefit from California’s clean energy transition.

Having grown up in rural western Colorado, I have spent the past ten years focusing on rural community development, particularly on advancing tribal sovereignty. I was thus thrilled to join the California Energy Commission (CEC) this summer to focus specifically on supporting California Native American tribes in their energy goals through Office of the Public Advisor, Energy Equity, and Tribal Affairs (PAO+). The CEC is California’s primary energy policy and planning agency, responsible for driving forward and implementing the State’s ambitious energy goals. They are also committed to working towards 100 percent clean energy for all, including interested California Native American tribes.

The roundtable hosted by Tolowa Dee-ni’ Nation was part of the CEC’s recent order on tribal affairs and tribal energy sovereignty, a landmark effort to advance tribal inclusion in California’s clean energy policy. Supporting the implementation of this order was my main focus of the summer, which meant helping envision and plan eleven roundtables with tribes across the state. From these roundtables, the CEC will then write draft policies on five scope areas, ranging from tribal energy sovereignty to best practices on tribal energy grants to tribal consultation. Then they will hold eleven additional roundtables to ensure the policies accurately represent the ideas suggested by tribes.

I became interested in the intersections of clean energy and tribal energy sovereignty because—over the past decade partnering with tribes—I have seen how energy can serve as a vehicle for economic opportunity, energy resiliency, and ultimately self-determination. Before pursuing my MA/MS in International Policy and Environment and Resources at Stanford, I spent four years working with The Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs in Oregon. In this position, I was charged with starting and running a college access program for Native youth through Central Oregon Community College. Yet this work inherently overlapped with other areas such as economic development and the impacts of climate change. I thus came to graduate school in part to research policy approaches to ensuring a just transition. At Stanford, I wrote papers on challenges to Tribally led renewable energy, worked at the Nevada Clean Energy Fund (Nevada’s green bank) to help them develop Tribal Clean Energy program, and worked with Tribes to access Inflation Reduction Act funding.

When I graduated from Stanford in June 2025, I planned to transition from community-based to policy-focused work. Yet with the change in administration, I have been interested in how states like California can continue to advance this work. Working at the CEC has given me direct insight into the many levers for policy change at the state level.

I was fortunate to be able to dive directly into helping shape this policy-making process on tribal affairs. My supervisor tasked me with helping lead the tribal energy grants and tribal workforce development scope of this proceeding. To help advance this work, I collaborated with a CEC colleague to start a Tribal Energy Grants Working Group; wrote a summary of innovations in CEC tribal energy grants to document good ideas and challenges; met with various partners and CEC staff focused on workforce development; and helped plan CEC’s summit on tribal enterprise and workforce development to take place in November 2025. In addition to these areas, it has been exciting to fill in on issues that arise, as each day brings something new. My summer also included writing recommendations to CEC Commissioners, writing a proposal to the Truth and Healing Council under the Governor’s Office, and researching legal issues under Federal Indian Law.

My time at the California Energy Commission has been extremely valuable, especially at a time when the CEC is launching a policymaking process that could shape the future of energy opportunities for California Native American tribes. As someone long focused on how institutional resources might better support tribes’ priorities, I have been happy to see the thoughtful, impactful work taking place at the CEC—and even more thrilled to be a part of it.