Shaping a sustainable energy future through policy

Electricity powers our lives — a resource that humans have become so accustomed to that people and businesses require access to it at all times of the day.

Yet, we often overlook the mechanisms that regulate the energy industry and ensure that electricity is available and affordable. We rely on public policies to ensure the long-term availability of natural resources, but policy doesn’t always incorporate sustainability, especially when those creating it are most concerned about the bottom line.

But Tracy Alt sees the need to weave sustainability into policy to create governance structures that utilize a holistic, full-circle picture of the system. With her education at Arizona State University, she’s creating her own pathway to do just that.

Alt is getting her Master of Sustainability Solutions (MSUS) at ASU’s School of Sustainability, an academic unit in the Rob Walton College of Global Futures, and a certificate in public administration from the Watts College of Public Service and Community Solutions.

She also recently completed an internship with Capital Power, an independent power producer, on their government relations team. Based in Edmonton, Canada, Capital Power recently opened a new headquarters office in Phoenix. Alt was Capital Power’s first intern at the United States headquarters location and the first to be hired onto the U.S. Policy and Government Relations team.

During her internship, Alt worked on policy research projects, diving deep into the nuances of legislation on critical topics such as small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs) and emerging technologies, transmission line infrastructure and permitting, and recent changes to tariff and trade structure.

“Tracy was the perfect embodiment of the type of innovative thinking our company is striving for in the energy sector,” said Brynn Hammond, lead of government relations and policy at Capital Power and Alt’s supervisor.

“Having Tracy on board as an ASU student meant that she could bring her unique, local perspective to the table while meeting stakeholders face to face, learning about our operations and applying her academic knowledge in a real-life environment.”

Alt’s coursework at ASU and her experiences before graduate school helped prepare her to understand the complexities of the energy sector and the web of policy that ensures power is readily available to millions of people at the flick of a switch.

But her path toward sustainability policy has been unexpected.

Before coming to ASU, Alt worked in corporate facilities management for Amazon in Seattle, Washington. She moved to Seattle after finishing her undergraduate degree in environmental studies from the University of Central Florida. She knew she wanted to pursue a career in sustainability but struggled to decide which industry to focus on.

It wasn’t until she had the opportunity to work as a research assistant with a consulting firm hired by the city of Richmond, California, that she first noticed a gap in sustainability policy.

“When looking at the development goals for the city and priorities for future economic growth, as well as the current implications of state and federal legislation, I realized that to develop more holistic policies that meet communities’ needs, we have to focus on the implementation and feasibility of sustainability in policy,” said Alt.

As a research assistant, Alt had the opportunity to assess opportunities for growth and long-term sustainability in Richmond. This project, part of a workforce development plan, aimed to catalyze over 1,000 jobs in the city.

With fresh insight into the ways sustainability can be woven into policy to build resilience in local communities, Alt was motivated to take a new step toward building her dreams.

“I had a friend who encouraged me to go after my dreams and pursue them, rather than waiting for them to find me, so I started to look at master's programs,” said Alt.

She wanted a sustainability-dedicated degree program and quickly found the Master of Sustainability Solutions program at ASU. After only visiting Arizona once before on a post-high school trip with her mom, Alt trusted her intuition and chose to move to Arizona to attend ASU’s School of Sustainability.

“The Master of Sustainability Solutions stood out to me because I wanted to understand how to bridge the gap between the theoretical, conceptual, philosophical side of sustainability that we’re taught and the practical, applied, real-life side that shows up in the private and public sectors,” says Alt. “I liked the sound of an applied program that could give me exposure to some of the connections you can make outside of the classroom to sustainability.”

Between sustainability and public affairs coursework, Alt craved more hands-on experience. When she was offered a spring internship at the County Supervisor Association, she enrolled in an internship course at ASU to earn course credit for her experience.

As an intern, Alt got firsthand experience with the legislative process and how research informs legislation.

After completing her internship with CSA, Alt became interested in natural resource management and emerging technologies. The energy sector was the obvious place to narrow her focus.

When she was looking at new internship opportunities to gain experience with energy policy, Mary McGillicuddy, a career development specialist at the College of Global Futures, emailed her about the internship with Capital Power.

And now that she has completed her internship with Capital Power, Alt feels she is scratching the surface of what she wants to learn and understand. Going forward, she wants to build a career working alongside hopeful people who are concerned about the future of the world. She wants to work with the public sector, nonprofit organizations and communities to make sure policy is rooted in people’s needs.

“We have to increase collaborative efforts across systems and sectors to make sure that communities aren’t routinely left behind,” says Alt.