Mary Wambui, a Boston area advocate dedicated to affordable housing, testified as a community expert that centering community voices in rate cases is the bedrock of true justice. Without listening to the community, the utility’s proposed investments will not benefit customers like her, but will instead benefit the company’s shareholders.

She described a utility company’s proposal that lacked both transparency and equity: its investments and programs were not fairly distributed. To promote equity, she said, the company should provide benefits including jobs, safety, reliability, resilience, access to clean energy technologies, and bill savings.