Hello!

My name is Moira Birss, and I just joined Public Grids as Deputy Director. I’m bringing my decades of experience with grassroots and electoral organizing, developing and implementing movement strategies, researching complicated policy problems and developing people-centered solutions to fix them, and building collaborative organizational culture. I want to build political and economic systems that serve the public good, not the privileged few, and I joined Public Grids because its approach of movement building plus technical research is a winning strategy to do just that. I’m thrilled to get to build and learn with the incredible team!

My most recent work has included leading a cutting-edge, multi-year research and policy design project with the Climate and Community Institute on home insurance. Colleagues and I developed a transformational approach to the country’s home insurance system that centers housing safety and affordability for all – rather than insurance industry profits. (Can you spot parallels to public power?) The leading candidate for Insurance Commissioner in California is running on a similar platform, and advocates in New York are developing their own state-specific version based on our ideas. You can read more about those ideas here, or listen to my interview on The Dig podcast.

Electricity is a system that ties everything together, and to win public power I believe we need more cross-movement approaches. I have worked as a human rights accompanier in Colombia, a campaigner for forest protection and the rights of Indigenous Peoples in the Amazon rainforest, the designer of ‘deep canvassing’ electoral programs, and advocate on financial regulation for climate action. The common principle across my work is my belief that strategic collective organizing and deep solidarity can – and in fact is the only thing that will – bring about a more just world, even in the face of powerful headwinds. Public Grids embodies that shared principle, and that’s why I believe in public power. 

I’m really looking forward to meeting, learning from, and collaborating with many of you as we build powerful, successful movements for public power across the country!

Moira 

You can be a part of the public power movement from wherever you are: will you join us with a monthly donation? Help us show our strength in numbers.

Public power at NYC Climate Week

• From Crisis to Capacity: Big Ideas Fueling Green Politics: A panel discussion with Democratic congressional candidates, union leadership, and Climate and Community Institute experts that promises timely policy ideas for a strategic climate agenda that meets the political moment and works for working people. Wednesday, September 23 || 4-5:30 p.m.

• Take Back Our Power: New York Assemblymembers Emily Gallagher and Sarahana Shrestha, Councilmember Chi Ossé, Sandeep Vaheesan (author of "Democracy in Power"), and Ashley Dawson (author of "Environmentalism from Below") talk about the political will and people power needed for the energy transition. Sunday, September 20 || 2:30 - 4:30 p.m. (doors at 2:30 p.m., event starts promptly at 3 p.m.)

• Trade Unions for Energy Democracy: Not one but two panel discussions about reclaiming energy from neoliberal privatization! Session 1: The Public Pathway as Energy Internationalism: Tuesday, September 22 || 2-4 p.m. Session 2: Labor, Climate & Public Power in the US, Thursday, September 24 || 2-4 p.m.

• Fight Data Centers Panel & Podcast Recording (and happy hour!): New York State Representative Emily Gallagher, Georgia Public Service Commissioner Peter Hubbard, and Louisiana Public Service Commissioner Davante Lewis will be in conversation with The Hum host Saul Levin and Lead Locally about the data center boom, covering what communities are facing on the ground and how elected officials and people-powered movements can push back and win. Thursday, September 24 || 5-6:30 p.m. 

Public power spotlight

• The Clean Energy Transition Has a Grid Problem. Here's How to Fix It by Kendra Pierre-Louis || Atmos 

• The Grid Has Eyes by Lee Hedgepeth || Inside Climate News 

• Energy is a Human Right by Candice Fortin || Peace & Riot 

• Power for and by the people? St. Petersburg groups launch campaign for municipal utilities. by Mitch Perry || Florida Phoenix

With gratitude and solidarity,

The small but mighty (and growing!) team at Public Grids