Energy transitions in a time of intersecting precarities: From reductive environmentalism to antiracist praxis

Abstract

Drawing from ethnographic research on solar energy campaigns in low-income Black communities, this article explores the unlikely intersections of three developments in early 2020: Covid-19, the Movement for Black Lives, and the YouTube re-release of “Planet of the Humans,” a documentary that disparages renewable energy. While the film is misleading and inaccurate, “Planet” provides fodder for reimagining renewable energy initiatives in ways that advance this moment’s antiracist activism and reinvigorate communities of color reeling from Covid-19’s disruptions. Specifically, I explore how solar energy campaigns in these communities unwittingly contribute to some of the environmental problems sensationalized by “Planet,” (e.g. mining, toxic waste, occupational hazards). In the process, these antiracist campaigns paradoxically reinforce the white supremacist hierarchies that shape commodity production. This paradox emerges when campaigns focus on what I call “the means of reduction” as opposed to the means of production. “The means of reduction” refers to the practices that render commodities as capable of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and electricity bills. In response, I offer a pragmatic praxis for aligning community solar campaigns with antiracist principles—linkages that can help communities of color address intersecting precarities. This praxis shifts the focus from reduction to production so as to ensure that community solar efforts are working toward antiracist values. The praxis’ “theoretical” component repurposes the concept of “co-pollutants” to illuminate environmental injustices throughout solar supply chains. Its “practice” component operationalizes this theoretical component, addressing solar’s co-pollutants by shifting the focus of community solar campaigns from consumer power to people power.