James Adams Staff Picks - September 2021

I selected my artifacts for this month’s media brief from the curated set of articles of the South Eastern Energy News listserve and the US Energy News listserve, published by the Energy News Network. I keep up with these listserves to stay up to date on topics relevant to energy transition, to energy disasters, and to energy and environmental justice.

My selection of the article on how to prevent sustained power outages was motivated by my continual focus on how extreme weather events are impacting energy infrastructures in the US, and how these impacts are affecting energy and infrastructure planning and politics in various regions.

            My second article focuses on the potential windfalls for early investors in mining infrastructures that would help meet the mineral requirements of the burgeoning renewable energy industry. I chose this article for a more critical reading of the way capitalists are approaching renewable energy transition in ways that mirrored the development of petro-infrastructures. In other words, I thought this article was important for the insight it provides into the world of those whose interest in renewable energy is based (primarily) in the profit motive. The article is interesting for what it does not state about the environmental injustices and the communities negatively impacted by the mining operations. This helps us think with more nuance about the way energy transition must be centered around a commitment to energy and environmental justice.