Whose low-carbon future? Community perceptions and expectations on the renewable energy transition in a post-industrial city

The transition of the energy system to renewables can lead to inequities. Under-resourced and marginalized community members are vulnerable to disproportionate burdens of the energy system, particularly in post-industrial cities also grappling with social pressures associated with disinvestment and deindustrialization, climate change threats, and pressures of urban renewal. In this study, we use expert elicitation, ethnographic participant observation, and community focus groups to examine issues and conceptualizations of energy justice in a minority-majority post-industrial city undergoing rapid energy transformation alongside gentrification and other changing community dynamics. Building on community partnerships with NGOs, our team has worked closely with a previously defined “environmental justice” community to elicit the ways in which the energy transition is perceived to result in energy justice and injustice by energy system specialists and by community members. We find that community members in particular fear getting “priced out” of their community as energy system upgrades are implemented, and also feel that systemic injustices such as racialized governance structures would be exacerbated. We also identify the ways that energy justice is conceptualized whereby community members identify co-benefits such as improved housing, lower pollution, and an opportunity for energy democracy as possible outcomes of the energy transition. We offer concrete takeaways about the value of ethnographic energy justice research in partnership with communities and the application of energy justice frameworks that can be heeded by researchers and policymakers alike.