Abstract
AbstractNations and NGOs are promoting the idea of a transition from a petroleum‐based civilization to one fueled by renewable energy. But there are many questions about how to proceed. The solution usually proposed is to develop “clean energy” as the underlying basis of a transition. Analysts tend to be concerned with climate change and land use change, with a focus on technical developments. Socio‐ecological issues receive scant attention, especially if they relate to oil cities. This article starts from the perspective that progress in saving the planet from destruction can only be achieved by taking seriously past and present injustices and taking measures to rectify them. I use the situation in Port Harcourt, Nigeria to illustrate this proposition. I focus on three interrelated concepts: rent theft, social costs, and just transition. The central problem is rent theft because it is at the root of the “crime of poverty” and the social costs of plundering the land for energy sources. Until they address problems arising from historical injustice, campaigns for a just transition that promote clean energy in a bioeconomy will merely reproduce the central problem. Thus, reparations and land equity must be an integral part of any solution.
Highlights
Nations and NGOs are promoting the idea of a transition from a petroleum-based civilization to one fueled by renewable energy
How can urban economists theorize the relationship between fossil fuels and the economy by focusing on cities? Second, in what ways does the oil industry shape urban outcomes? Third, what other alternatives could be developed beyond the existing simplistic focus on making oil cities history?
As a concept in political economy, rent theft is distinct from the public choice concept of rent-seeking, which refers to the misuse of a political system to gain advantage for a select number of people by changing relative prices, such as pre-and post-tariff prices (Krueger 1974; Haila 2016: 121–123)
Summary
Oil cities and coal towns around the world have an ambiguous reputation. As centers of production of the fuels that have been the engine of economic development, they are viewed as being necessary. Marxian alternatives have been put forward (Nwoke 1984a, 1984b, 1986; Fine and Rustomjee 1996) These frameworks do not systematically consider urban land in time and space (Obeng-Odoom 2010a, 2014). Studying location and time in relation to the way cities are shaped by fossil fuels is one way of reconstructing urban economics (Obeng-Odoom 2014, 2016). This article draws on the interrelated concepts of rent theft, social costs, and the just distribution and use of land It uses data from oil cities in Africa, notably Port Harcourt in Nigeria. Those sources are the basis of my argument that rent theft is the central cause of urban inequalities, social stratification, and social costs from oil extraction. In a section on just transition and land equity, I look at the story of Port Harcourt as a way to understand concretely how the transition to a post-oil economy might occur and how it might affect an urban economy
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