Embodied energy injustices: Unveiling and politicizing the transboundary harms of fossil fuel extractivism and fossil fuel supply chains. (February 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Healy, Noel; Stephens, Jennie C.; Malin, Stephanie A.
• Is Part Of: Energy research & social science. Volume 48(2019)
• Page Start: 219
• Page End: 234
• Publication Date: 2019-02
• Subjects: Embodied energy injustices -- Coal -- Fracking -- Energy transitions; Power resources -- Social aspects -- Periodicals; Energy consumption -- Social aspects -- Periodicals; 333.7905
• DOI: 10.1016/j.erss.2018.09.016
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2214-6296

Abstract

Graphical abstract: Embodied energy injustices explicitly consider hidden and distant injustices (upstream or downstream) arising from the extraction, processing, transportation and disposal of energy resources. Highlights: Embodied energy injustices reveal distant socio-environmental impacts of energy policy. Early recognition of embodied injustices can enhance sustainable energy governance. Greater transparency in energy supply chains is needed for transboundary responsibility. Assessment of embodied energy injustices is relevant to fossil fuels and renewables. Linking trans-local energy struggles opens new possibilities for energy democracy. Abstract: We introduce the new concept of embodied energy injustices in order to encourage integrative, systemic, transboundary assessment of the global implications and responsibility of energy-policy decisions. Embodied energy injustices reframe considerations of energy justice to explicitly consider hidden and distant injustices (upstream or downstream) arising from the extraction, processing, transportation and disposal of energy resources. We assess the embodied energy injustices connected to the decision to decommission a coal-fired power plant in Salem, Massachusetts, US, and its replacement with a natural-gas-fired power station. Cerrejón open-pit coalmine in La Guajira, Colombia, powered the Salem plant for over a decade. Fracked gas from Pennsylvania now supplies fuel for the new power station. Comparing the extraction of these two very different fuels reveals multiple parallel injustices. But the regulatory environment fails to account for the different constituencies, jurisdictions and effects that fall outside the formal remit of existing impact assessments. We therefore call for mandatory transboundary impact assessments of large-scale energy-related projects, which explicitly integrate previously unrecognized social-environmental harms and injustices. Expanding energy law and policy discussions to incorporate embodied energy injustices can enhance sustainable energy governance and enable corporate accountability for the transboundary harms of fossil fuel extraction and use. Linking chains of energy injustice —by revealing their interconnected positions along fossil-fuel supply chains—may help generate and unite powerful trans-local solidarity movements, which politicize local struggles within wider national, regional and global energy politics.