Human-caused climate change is driven by burning fossil fuels like coal, oil, and gas for energy. Although we all need energy to live – and all energy comes from the Earth – the benefits and burdens of energy systems have not been distributed fairly. Energy justice seeks to change that by achieving equitable social and economic participation in our energy system while remediating the social, economic, and health burdens on marginalized communities.
Energy justice is inherently connected to environmental justice and climate justice because of the disproportionate burden of climate and environmental harms that are borne by marginalized communities in the current extractive energy system.
Energy justice might also be referred to as energy equity, energy democracy, utility justice, or simply a just energy system.
Goals of Energy Justice
Energy justice, like environmental and climate justice, demands both distributive and procedural justice – meaning the fairness of both outcomes/resource allocations and decision-making processes used to determine outcomes. The goals of energy justice include:
- Transitioning the power and control over the means of energy production into the hands of the community;
- Ensuring fair and equitable distribution of the benefits and burdens of energy production activities, and;
- Centering the concerns of marginalized communities.
These goals indicate a redistribution of economic and political power away from utility companies and into more democratic systems of community control. Advocates believe that if there were adequate community involvement, it would stop many of the inequities and injustices in our energy system and result in a more fair and equitable distribution of benefits and burdens. While some advocates push for full community ownership of the grid, others look towards true community oversight and decision-making power. Either way, centering the concerns of marginalized communities is essential.
Origins of Energy & Environmental Justice
In many ways, the history of the United States is a history of people fighting for fair treatment and freedom under the law. The environmental and energy justice movements are core parts of that history, and racial justice is foundational to achieving both. To achieve the goal of equitable access to clean, affordable energy and a healthy environment, it’s necessary to address the institutional racism and systems of oppression that are the barriers to achieving that goal.
The concepts of racial and environmental justice are so connected that in 1982, Dr. Chavis Jr., executive director of the Commission for Racial Justice of the United Church of Christ, coined the term environmental racism to describe the injustice that communities of color were facing. He defined environmental racism as:
“Racial discrimination in environmental policy making, the enforcement of regulations and laws, the deliberate targeting of communities of color for toxic waste facility facilities, the official sanctioning of the life-threatening presence of poisons and pollutants in our communities, and the history of excluding people of color from leadership in the ecology movements.”
Later, the sociologist Robert Bullard, known as the “father of environmental justice,” expanded the definition of environmental racism to include “any policy, practice, or directive that differentially affects disadvantages (where intended or unintended) individuals, groups, or communities based on race.” Likewise, the term environmental justice was defined as the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income, with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations and policies.
Although this was not a new experience, communities of color had long spoken against their disproportionate exposure to pollution and related health issues, it wasn’t until 1982 when a hazardous landfill was sited in a rural Black community that it had garnered national attention. The facility planned for Warren County sparked massive protests, where Dr. Chavis was himself arrested with more than 500 protesters. The national attention served as a catalyst to formalize the environmental justice movement.
The following year, the United Church of Chris authored the landmark report, Toxic Wastes and Race in the United States which showed how widespread environmental racism was in the U.S. The report referenced 10 major metropolitan areas where more than 90% of the African American population lived in areas with uncontrolled toxic waste sites. These areas became referred to as “sacrifice zones”, resulting from unequal protection under the law.
Later, in 1991, the First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit was held in Washington, D.C. to highlight the national issue of environmental racism. It was at this Summit that representatives from hundreds of communities across the country drafted the Principles of Environmental Justice and organizing structures were built to maintain communication and grow the movement.
After mounting pressure from activists, in 1994, President Bill Clinton Sr. issued Executive Order 12898, Federal Actions to Address Environmental Justice in Minority and Low-Income Populations. The Executive Order directs federal agencies to, “the greatest extent practicable and permitted by law… make achieving environmental justice part of its mission by identifying and addressing, as appropriate, disproportionately high and adverse human health or environmental effects of its programs, policies, and activities on minority populations and low-income populations in the United States.” Despite this intention, environmental racism still persists today.
A 2022 study by the University of California, Berkeley and Columbia University illustrates the relationship between historic redlining and the siting of oil and gas wells in the United States. The legacy of racist policies in housing, lending, and urban planning carried out by both private businesses and government agencies, including the federal Home Owners Loan Corporation (HOLC), have the effect of creating the sacrifice zones that we see today.
Although the HOLC was created during the New Deal to prevent foreclosures, only homes in “certain” neighborhoods would qualify. Some neighborhoods were avoided (or “redlined”) because they were seen as risky investments that “would most likely go down in property value.” It was no coincidence that Black people lived in the majority of these neighborhoods and that today these neighborhoods have twice as many oil and gas wells than most white neighborhoods. Meanwhile, the energy and economic benefits that many of these polluting facilities operate to produce are not benefiting Black, Brown, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC). A 2022 report from the Department of Energy cited that nearly 17,000 tribal homes were without electricity, with most being in the southwestern states and in Alaska. A 2019 report from Columbia University reported that energy insecurity, or the inability to adequately meet household energy needs, was especially prevalent among African American households.
Energy Justice & Environmental Justice Movements Today
Despite the disappointing history of continued injustice, in recent years some major milestones have been made. This summer, the Department of Interior announced a new program and $72.5 million in initial funding to help Tribal communities connect to a grid powered by renewable energy and electrify homes. And, in terms of addressing pollution, Michael Regan, the first African American to serve as the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, has taken immediate action.
In 2022, under Regan’s leadership, the EPA issued a 56-page letter to Louisiana’s Department of Environmental Quality and Louisiana Department of Health to report the potential civil rights violations surrounding the 85-mile stretch between Baton Rouge and New Orleans nicknamed “Cancer Alley.” Mile after mile of gas and oil operations, the majority Black and low-income communities within this area contain 7 out of the 10 census tracts with the country’s highest cancer risk levels from air pollution.
As the United States recommits to environmental justice and makes massive investments in clean energy to fight climate change, energy justice must be front and center. To transition to clean energy, our energy systems will undergo mass transformation and major investment. Over 70% of our grid is more than 25 years old, and Rhode Island has one of the oldest (and leakiest) grids in the entire country. While the transition to clean energy is a driving catalyst, our grid is also extremely vulnerable to increasingly intense storms as a result of climate change. Equitably modernizing the grid will require focused attention to the social and technical dimensions that will increase the burden on marginalized communities, as well as strategies to ensure they can benefit from social and economic participation.
References:
- Baker, Shalanda, et al. “The Energy Justice Workbook – Initiative for Energy Justice.” Initiative for Energy Justice, Dec. 2019, iejusa.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/The-Energy-Justice-Workbook-2019-web.pdf
- Compton, Kimberly. “Pro-Environmental Behaviors Among Black Environmentalists: A Critical Race Perspective Critical Race Perspective.” VCU Scholars Compass, Virginia Commonwealth University , 10 May 2021, scholarscompass.vcu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=7730&context=etd.
- Wilkins, Donele, and Amy J. Schulz. “Antiracist Research and Practice for Environmental Health: Implications for Community Engagement.” Environmental Health Perspectives, 24 May 2023, ehp.niehs.nih.gov/doi/full/10.1289/EHP11384
- Lewis, Jamal, MPH and Hernández, Diana PhD. “Energy Efficiency as Energy Justice: Addressing Racial Inequities through Investmetns in People and Places.” Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University. National Library of Medicine, 12 March 2019. ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7966972/
- Ihejirika, Maudlyne. “What is Environmental Racism?” National Resources Defense Council. 24 May 2023. nrdc.org/stories/what-environmental-racism
- “Justice40: A Whole-of-Government Initiative.” The White House. whitehouse.gov/environmentaljustice/justice40/