September 8, 2023
WRA is excited to welcome back Erin Overturf as our Clean Energy Director. With almost 15 years of experience in energy policy, she is one of the most respected advocates for clean energy in the West and joins us at a critical time in creating a carbon-free future.
Erin leads the clean energy team to represent WRA in utility regulatory and air quality proceedings, negotiations, and civil litigation. She excels at navigating some of the most complex, opaque forums in civic infrastructure to make a direct impact on our day-to-day lives.
Undeterred by technical detail, Erin has focused her career on clean energy advocacy because of its holistic impact on the West.
“The energy system touches so many aspects of our lives — it is often invisible, but foundational. I really enjoy clean energy work because it sits at the intersection of law, economics, and policy. And the field is constantly changing, which means new opportunities to learn all the time.”
Erin has been at the forefront of working with public utilities commissions well before they gained attention as venues to make substantive change.
WRA has been driving state level policy and specifically advocating in front of public utilities commissions in the West since the 1990s, when they were very obscure venues! Even when I started doing this work around 2009, it was a much smaller community of people who paid attention to PUCs or recognized their importance. It’s exciting to see so many people now interested in following the work of utility commissions and recognizing how important and powerful they are.
Prior to WRA, Erin served as an Assistant Solicitor General in the Office of the Colorado Attorney General and as a clerk to Justice Alex Martinez of the Colorado Supreme Court. In 2013, she joined WRA as a senior staff attorney on the clean energy team and eventually became the clean energy director over the course of nine years. After a stint with Earthjustice, she rejoined WRA this August.
Erin has lived in Colorado most of her life and understands the importance of driving measurable policy changes that will tackle the current climate crisis. She has played an impressive role in shaping the West’s energy future, including serving as an integral part of the effort that has secured Colorado’s transition away from coal and toward clean energy sources. Her efforts also helped to secure the establishment of Colorado’s first economy-wide greenhouse gas reduction goals through state legislation passed in 2019, as well as the legal framework by which Colorado utilities will be required to reduce emissions at least 80% by 2030, as compared to 2005 levels.
Over the next few years, she plans on “making real, measurable, concrete progress in reducing emissions in order to protect public health and preserve a habitable climate system” with the WRA advocacy teams.
Along with being a clean energy expert and policy advocate, Erin is also a board game connoisseur, playing everything from Legend of Dragonholt to Wingspan to Pandemic Legacy. Complicated board games and complicated policy systems have a lot in common and she appreciates a good challenge! She also loves to get outside and enjoy the Interior West – it’s on her bucket list to go rafting with her child through the Grand Canyon.
WRA is delighted to have Erin back at the helm of the clean energy team with her rich experience and deep knowledge of the issues facing the region. We are confident that her expertise and inspirational leadership will accelerate our momentum towards a future of clean, affordable energy for all Western communities.
