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.
ISBN-13: 9781642830675
Media Type: Paperback
Publisher: Island Press
Publication Date: 01-14-2021
Pages: 224
Product Dimensions: 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.20(d)
Shalanda Baker is a professor at the Northeastern School of Law. Before joining Northeastern’s faculty, Professor Baker spent three years as an associate professor of law at the William S. Richardson School of Law, University of Hawai’i, where she was the founding director of the Energy Justice Program. Prior to that, she served on the faculty at the University of San Francisco School of Law. In 2016, she won a Fulbright award and spent a year in Mexico exploring energy reform, climate change and indigenous rights.
Table of Contents
Introduction 1
Chapter 1 Energy, Energy Justice, and Civil Rights 17
Chapter 2 Utility Reform: The Linchpin to Transforming the Energy System 41
Chapter 3 Ending Climate Change Fundamentalism 65
Chapter 4 The Fight for Local Power 89
Chapter 5 Community Energy: The Devil Is in the Details 117
Chapter 6 Access to Capital: A Way to End Solar Segregation 139
Conclusion: Revolutionary Power 161
Acknowledgments 177
Notes 179
About the Author 205
Index 207
Show More
