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In September 2017, Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico, completely upending the energy grid of the small island. The nearly year-long power outage that followed vividly shows how the new climate reality intersects with race and access to energy. The island is home to brown and black US citizens who lack the political power of those living in the continental US. As the world continues to warm and storms like Maria become more commonplace, it is critical that we rethink our current energy system to enable reliable, locally produced, and locally controlled energy without replicating the current structures of power and control. In Revolutionary Power, Shalanda Baker arms those made most vulnerable by our current energy system with the tools they need to remake the system in the service of their humanity. She argues that people of color, poor people, and indigenous people must engage in the creation of the new energy system in order to upend the unequal power dynamics of the current system. Revolutionary Power is a playbook for the energy transformation complete with a step-by-step analysis of the key energy policy areas that are ripe for intervention. Baker tells the stories of those who have been left behind in our current system and those who are working to be architects of a more just system. She draws from her experience as an energy-justice advocate, a lawyer, and a queer woman of color to inspire activists working to build our new energy system. Climate change will force us to rethink the way we generate and distribute energy and regulate the system. But how much are we willing to change the system? This unique moment in history provides an unprecedented opening for a deeper transformation of the energy system, and thus, an opportunity to transform society. Revolutionary Power shows us how.
To be poor, working-class, or a person of color in the United States often means bearing a disproportionate share of the country’s environmental problems. Starting with the premise that all Americans have a basic right to live in a healthy environment, Dumping in Dixie chronicles the efforts of five African American communities, empowered by the civil rights movement, to link environmentalism with issues of social justice. In the third edition, Bullard speaks to us from the front lines of the environmental justice movement about new developments in environmental racism, different organizing strategies, and success stories in the struggle for environmental equity.
We face incredible challenges for decarbonizing our economy and raising the standard of living for all members of our society at the same time. Historical energy efficiency efforts have been effective in making small steps, but they fall far short of the massive changes we need to make, and they completely miss helping communities of disadvantage (e.g. low-income, African American, Hispanic American, Native American and tribal nations, etc). Business as usual efforts do not take the time to connect with and understand the challenges of these historical underinvested communities and therefore have not been effective at helping these communities. The Biden Harris Administration has set ambitious goals for decarbonization of our economy that include a requirement that 40% of efforts support energy and environmental justice communities. If we are to meet our decarbonization goals, it is imperative that we change our approach to research, development, and deployment of new technologies. The Department of Energy has set energy justice as a priority and is working with the national laboratories to change our approaches. This paper starts with definitions of what we mean by energy and environmental justice and how they apply to building technologies and deployment efforts. We provide several examples of how historical efforts have succeeded and how they have failed to account for challenges of communities of disadvantage. We identify market and technology barriers to decarbonization and energy efficiency for specific technologies and how these barriers are exacerbated for disadvantaged communities. From these examples, we propose a new framework for integrating energy and environmental justice into all aspects of technology development, deployment, and policy efforts within the building energy sector.
A systematic evaluation of the implementation of the federal government's environmental justice policies.
"This dissertation contains four individual papers that examine the intersection of residential energy consumption and equity concerns in the United States. The first paper introduces the European concept of fuel poverty as a more holistic understanding of American energy affordability disparities, arguing that disparities result not only from inequalities in income, but also, inequalities in residential energy efficiency, and institutional strategies. Particular attention is paid to the institutional strategies of energy conservation and efficiency policies operating within the "submerged state" concept of governance. Submerged state governance fosters inequality by way of upwardly biased tax incentives, growing third-party profits, and the growth of corporate interests who act to maintain the status quo. The second paper examines the spatial and socio-demographic characteristics of fuel poverty. Using geographic information systems matched with data from the national Residential Energy Consumption Survey and the US Census Bureau, I map residential energy affordability and efficiency for census block groups in the Kansas City, Missouri metropolitan area. Results illustrate the spatial concentration block groups with higher energy burdens and higher energy inefficiency, and an overrepresentation of disadvantaged populations (i.e. minorities, poor, and seniors) in these block groups. The third paper explores the implementation of a concentrated, place-based approach to improving residential energy efficiency in five urban neighborhoods. The Green Impact Zone initiative in Kansas City, Missouri was a green-centered approach to urban renewal relying on the federal Weatherization Assistance Program as a major component. This qualitative study finds that the challenges of implementing an existing program with a new approach are numerous without major modifications to program regulation. However, the collective efficacy institutionalized within neighborhood associations is key to identifying both the challenges and their potential solutions. The fourth paper presents several policy recommendations for addressing inequities in residential energy affordability and efficiency from consolidation of low-income energy assistance programs to arguing that environmental and climate justice organizations assume energy affordability and efficiency as major areas of social action."--Page iii.
Energy Justice: US and International Perspectives is a pioneering analysis of energy law and policy through the framework of energy justice. While climate change has triggered unprecedented investment in renewable energy, the concept of energy justice and its practical application to energy law and policy remain under-theorized. This volume breaks new ground by examining a range of energy justice regulatory challenges from the perspective of international law, US law, and foreign domestic law. The book illuminates the theory of energy justice while emphasizing practical solutions that hasten the transition from fossil fuels and address the inequities that plague energy systems.