A primary challenge for energy justice work is achieving an equitable energy transition while also acknowledging and remediating the health, social, and economic burdens on historically marginalized communities. These tensions shouldn’t be seen as trade-offs, but rather obstacles that we must focus our efforts on in order to work towards energy justice.  

In previous media briefs, we discussed how green energy corporations may sometimes trample on marginalized communities in the name of transitioning away from fossil fuels and by doing so, they are perceived as acting in the greater good. One example of this can be seen in Northern Nevada, where Lithium Americas is planning to build a 1,000 acre lithium mine on land considered sacred to the Paiute and Shoshone people (Golden 2021). This sacred land is a burial ground dedicated to those that were slaughtered by US settlers in the late 1800s; their lives are honored annually at the site. “We’re just protecting our elders, their grandparents, the integrity of the things that they had,” said McKinney, 32, a member of the Shoshone-Paiute Tribes. “There was life back there, there was death back there (Golden 2021).

There are no overarching legal protections for sacred indiginous land, meaning that tribes are faced with legal challenges when trying to protect their land. In September, an attempt to temporarily pause an archeology survey of the site was denied. The mining project was approved by the Trump administration in January with the goal of supplying lithium to electric car battery manufacturers. Lithium Americas say this mine could meet the majority of demand and contribute significantly towards phasing out combustible engine vehicles. But other cases show that  we can protect Indigoneous land rather than reproduce harm; this can be seen with the cancelling of the Keystone XL pipeline. We are capable of transitioning away from fossil fuels in a way that does not disturb Indigoneous sacred land. By bringing attention to issues like this, we hope to highlight Indigeonus voices and work towards a solution led by marginalized communities. 

The next article discusses why billionaires are worried about green investing amidst the supply chain shortages brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. Steve Schwarzman, Blackstone’s billionaire co-founder, warned that oil prices are far too high and that current trends indicate a potential for unrest around the world as companies move towards investing in green energy projects. He stated that it is nearly impossible to try and raise money to drill for oil, and a JPMorgan analyst wrote this year that as much as $600 billion must be invested in oil by 2030 to meet continued demand (Sorkin et al. 2021). Larry Fink of BlackRock, one of the biggest proponents of Wall Street adopting E.S.G. is worried about going too far with it, stating that many think we can simply flip a switch to go from a brown world to a green one yet that is not possible. Scwarzman states that governments need to intervene on behalf of oil and fossil fuel companies so they can continue to meet demand or we will see “many unhappy people.” 

This article ignores the impacts that continued investment in oil and fossil fuels would have on the lives of the vast majority of people, especially those living in areas most impacted by climate change. We are already seeing extreme weather events all across the world, and almost every climate report states that we need to make significant changes to our way of life in order to only feel some of the most severe effects of climate change. Scwarzman fails to consider how many “unhappy” people there will be when climate change destroys entire communities and creates a refugee crisis unlike anything we have seen before. Fink calls a fast transition impossible, yet gives no reason why. The impacts of oil and gas wells is explored further in the next article.

There are currently 3.2 million abandoned gas and oil wells across the United States, all of which pose a great environmental and health risk due to methane leaks and groundwater contamination. The reason for these well’s decrepit state can be attributed to deficient energy infrastructure policies in states across the U.S. that set bonds for remediating wells far too low. These low bond prices were made by state governments who wanted to entice less wealthy energy companies to build infrastructure on their land. The bond price was far lower than the cost it would take to plug these wells, forcing the government to pay the estimated $2.6 million it would cost to plug these wells, something the Biden administration plans to tackle in its Build Back Better Agenda. The bill includes $4.7 billion for orphaned well cleanup on state, private, federal, and tribal lands. Orphaned wells are those where no known operator can be held responsible for cleaning up the site. As the next article will elaborate on, this bill is much needed as state governments can only do so much in the face of a threat the size of climate change (Oldham 2021).

Hurricane Ida and Isaias swept through Philadelphia in the last few months, forcing many city residents out of their homes. These catastrophic events have only become more common and the scientific consensus is that man-made climate change is to blame. Things will only continue to get worse unless bold action is taken to reduce our carbon emissions. Katherine Gilmore of the Inquirer argues that the City of Philadelphia can only do so much, and federal support is required to take on the issue of climate change. Gilmore lauds what the City has done on its own, such as the nationally recognized Green City Clean Waters initiative to reduce the burden on our aging sewer system (Gilmore 2021). Still, Gilmore argues that what is needed is beyond the scope of even a major city. She then discusses the Build Back Better plan in the latter half of the article, calling it a bold step in the right direction. It would put people to work creating a 21st century electrical grid, installing solar panels and wind farms, as well as addressing things such as lead paint and old pipes that plague many American cities. It is understandable to promote the Build Back Better agenda, and it will certainly help millions of Americans, but as we will discuss in the next section, it received many cuts from conservative Democrats that significantly reduce its scope and impact. Energy justice advocates are in a peculiar position right now with the Build Back Better plan. The investments it makes in finally removing lead from our water supplies is long overdue, and it does contain large investments in clean energy, but falls short in many aspects due to the price decrease from $3 trillion to $1.7 trillion.