In a recent interview, Blake explains how Electric Nation came to be. While its official launch occurred in January 2024, the idea of Electric Nation was born years ago amid the opposition, protests, and legal battles of numerous tribes to the Line 3 and Dakota Access pipelines. The two pipelines, which together cover more than 2,000 miles, faced backlash from the tribal nations they crossed for violating treaty rights and threatening waterways, environmental health, and ancestral lands. “We just felt like there was almost this invasion of our homelands,” Blake says “It felt like we were being targeted. We thought to ourselves, They may have won the battle, but they’re not going to win the war.”. He calls Electric Nation “a direct response” to the fossil fuel infrastructure that was built on Indigenous lands in the region. “[Electric Nation] was just another form of Native American resistance to the fossil fuel expansion and infrastructure,” he says.
Giving people a choice between fossil fuel–powered vehicles and clean ones is a point of emphasis for Blake, as is educating communities about the benefits of electric vehicles so that people can make better informed decisions. “We thought to ourselves, We’re going to continue to fight the fossil fuel infrastructure with our own [infrastructure] and let people decide on what they feel is right for them,” he explains. “We felt like if we were able to give that choice to people, then ultimately, people are going to choose to move toward electric vehicles in the future.” Tribes have historically been left out of major energy transitions, which makes leaders who are working toward creating accessibility to clean transportation and energy, like Blake, especially important.
Electrification of households in the United States is one area in which tribes have been historically excluded. Despite how often their lands are exploited for energy resources, Indigenous populations still face some of the highest energy disparities in the nation. The Rural Electrification Act of 1936 saw electrification in 85 percent of American homes by 1945. However, according to the Energy Information Administration, it wasn’t until more than 50 years later, in 2000, that 85 percent of Native households were electrified, due to a lack of federal funding and programs. Now, more than 20 years later, electrification in Indian Country is still behind the rest of the United States; as of 2021, more than 75 percent of unelectrified households in the country are located on tribal lands. In addition, residents on tribal lands pay 28.3 percent more for energy than the average U.S. citizen on average and are 6.5 times more likely to experience electricity outages per year. It is of utmost importance to ensure that this historical pattern of tribes being left behind does not repeat itself in the transition to clean transportation, which is why initiatives like Electric Nation are vital to laying the groundwork for the changes ahead.
