Energy Democracy

The main objective of this course is to understand the role fossil fuels play in mediating the metabolic relationship between human society and the other elements of the biosphere. Since the late 18th century, a new way of producing commodities has emerged at the heart of the British Empire, mediated by the energy embodied in fossilized plants, and with it a new mode of relating to the biosphere. After providing some basic concepts to discuss how human groups relate to the biosphere, the course will trace back the origins of the use of fossil fuel energy in industrial production, and assess the key role this form of energy has played in the development of the capitalist economy. We will discuss in-depth how fossil fuel extraction and consumption have since then organized capitalist society in all its aspects, with special emphasis on the multiple ways individual and corporate agency inserts itself within broad scale economic, political and ecological structural processes. The second half of the course will address current issues of fossil fuel expansion, and the political and cultural influence of the sector in Canada and elsewhere. In counterpoint to corporate agency, we will also examine the growing movements of resistance and opposition to fossil fuel expansion, as well as the varied and contending proposals for a transition away from fossil fuels and toward an economy based on renewable energy.

Societies need to transition to renewable energy and eliminate fossil fuel use as soon as possible. However, policymakers have mostly neglected to consider that there is an array of possible energy transition pathways. Therefore, I offer a typology that envisions potential energy futures as falling along a two-dimensional model comprised of the structural organization of the social (political, economic, and civil) on one axis — on a spectrum of democratic versus monopolistic — and the scale of the energy system on the other — dichotomized as centralized versus decentralized. This typology suggests that there are four potential energy futures, which I term: (1) libertarian energy decentralism, (2) technocratic energy centralism, (3) democratic energy centralism, and (4) democratic energy decentralism. These four futures are not equal in terms of power, equity, and ecological impact. I argue that the democratization of the social is necessary to facilitate a “just transition,” but the scale of the energy system will also play a pivotal role in reinforcing and reproducing democratic and just social relations.

In this introductory chapter, I expand on the definition of energy as an inherently social phenomenon and try to rethink the notion of energy impacts beyond the physical and material operation of energy developments and technologies. Instead, energy projects are analysed here as sites of new sociotechnical relations that implicate a broad set of materialities and temporalities in the operation of extractive industries and renewable technologies. I go beyond the local environments and show how energy impacts and resistance that they generate, point to the various scales at which energy is made significant for democracy, justice and equality. By reviewing the relevant literature and building on the analysis in the current volume, I argue that contestation of energy is transformative and creates new imaginaries of energy futures and energy democracy.

This report provides an in-depth analysis of the current situation of the power sector, the proposals for energy democracy, and the struggles against disaster capitalism and the shock doctrine in the Caribbean. After assessing the immediate impact of the hurricanes, it describes the specific colonial relationship between Puerto Rico and the United States, and discusses how the island’s political status has shaped economic development and modernisation.

This thesis explores the experiences, motivations and the imaginary of people who seek to democratize access to energy. Through a survey of the energy democracy movement in Europe and North America and a case study of two participatory and democratically oriented electricity providers in Central America, this thesis examines the differences and similarities between democratizing energy in the Global North and Global South in the context of marketization and the global push to transition to renewable energy.

The forces of an expanding global energy economy are increasingly influencing the way that we can access and consume energy in our lives. Local interactions cannot be understood by an isolated analysis without considering the larger structural conditions that implicate them. Today, we are witnessing a global push to transition our energy resources from fossil fuels to renewables due to the emergency of climate change.

For the most part, this transition preoccupies itself with changing the technological instruments that source us the energy. Yet few changes are targeting transition from growth focused market-based economic models. Energy Democracy is one new imaginary that people are rallying around to help realize alternatives to drive more equitable and sustainable post-carbon futures.

This thesis finds that there are unfounded normative assumptions being made about groups organizing around energy democracy that is masking scatter in the movement. There is an aggressive strand of energy democracy that readily accepts for-profit schemes and risks turning energy democracy into just another space for capital accumulation in the energy sector. This thesis presents two important suggestions for reconciling these problems. Firstly, to look beyond moving the term itself and prioritize connecting on the basis of the underlying principles that define the term. This will ultimately create more meaningful solidarity in the future, and a more grounded and unified movement. Secondly, to increase focus on exploring the experiences and motivations of like-minded groups in the Global South who are heavily implicated by this global energy transition and, necessarily, by any movement that seeks an alternative to it.

There is a growing ‘energy democracy’ (ED) movement which regards the transition to renewable energy as an opportunity for socio-economic transformation, as well as technological innovation. The literature on ED tends to associate greater democratic control of energy systems with increased community control over the means of energy generation and distribution. Nonetheless, this literature often assumes rather than demonstrates that the forms of governance it promotes are more democratic than the status quo. This analysis contributes to the emerging field of ED by assessing the complex and varied ways in which communities in Scotland practise energy governance. By focusing on three key governance processes (decision-making, accountability and dispute resolution), the importance of local contexts for the establishment and negotiation of democratic practices is demonstrated. This local specificity, however, also raises further questions regarding the universal applicability of the ED concept.

​Uninterrupted, high quality, affordable, and sufficient access to energy services is essential to human life. The European Union (EU) has recognized this in recent years by providing greater protection to vulnerable and energy poor households, and by requiring States to provide various forms of support to them. The new EU Electricity Directivef for example states that: "Energy services are fundamental to safeguarding the well-being of the Union citizens. Adequate warmth, cooling and lighting, and energy to power appliances are essential services to guarantee a decent standard of living and citizens' health. Furthermore, access to those energy services enables Union citizens to fulfil their potential and enhances social inclusion." The EU’s Clean Energy for All Package as a whole aims to further increase protection for households, particularly by requiring Member States to define, assess and report on the number of energy poor households within their territory and to indicate the measures they intend to take to address the situation.

While the EU's Clean Energy Package stopped short of recognizing a new legally binding ‘right to energy’ for all individuals, sought after by European civil society organizations, the concept of the ‘(human) right to energy’ is gaining considerable traction in law, policy and advocacy
all around the world. Electricity Directive 2019/944 for example affirms that ‘it respects the fundamental rights and observes the principles recognised in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights’.

As an 'autonomous' right, the new ‘right to energy’ can be formulated in different manners, for example as referring to affordable, reliable, uninterrupted, high quality, clean or renewable energy supply or services, or as the right to a warm home. The ‘right to energy’ can also be posited in various ways, as a moral right, a call to action, a policy objective or legally enforceable right, the latter through constitutions, human rights treaties or in energy laws. This brief provides a brief 'state-of-the art' overview of recent developments at EU level and national European level, including as rights to energy have been recognized in Spain and France. It specifically considers what the right to energy might mean in practice, including when accepted as a legally binding (human) right.

Energy democracy hopes to foster community engagement and participation in shaping our transition from fossil fuels to a renewable energy-based economy. These considerations result from critiques by environmental justice, climate justice, and just transition advocates. Although many are sympathetic to energy democracy ideals, climate goals often are articulated in math terms. This essay defines the aforementioned key terms and asks: what are the limitations and possibilities of engaging publics when climate action solely is articulated in numbers? A compelling case study is the City of Boulder – recognized as a global leader in climate science and a national leader in innovative environmental planning. This essay shares work from 2016, when the City shared a climate action plan for public feedback, supported several public participation events, and passed climate action legislation goals. We argue a just transition and energy democracy ideals are hindered if we reduce climate goals to math.

The past two decades witnessed the emergence of a strong global climate movement all around the world. Institutionalized global organizations, new environmentalists, trans-national grassroots movements, unions, academicians, green parties and indigenous peoples' movements have joined forces and managed to move together in order to convince the decision makers to take the right steps both to mitigate further effects of climate change and protect the most vulnerable from the existing effects. This paper uses a semi-ethnograpic, discourse analytic method examining existing urban civil actors'-environmental movement organizations-approach in climate change related issues and rural stakeholders'-grassroots struggles, defending the right to live-anti-coal struggles. It identifies discourses, motives, interests and needs of both types of engagements and highlights the necessity to merge climate change and anti-coal discourses to make actors from today's stakeholders for a strong national climate building to achieve social, cultural and political change. It introduces intra-mobilization of resources model, derived from resource mobilization theory, as permanent exchange of resources between EMOs working around climate change and grassroots anti-coal struggles in order to find common narratives and build a strong climate movement in Turkey. The paper also lists the requirements for this model to be applied and internalized. It suggests that a collective approach to intra-mobilization of resources, given a mutual interest in it and a third space of engagement, could be successful in mobilizing more people around climate change, its causes and impacts while influencing policies around the issue. It also suggests that building a participatory, strong, nation-wide climate movement with a collective approach may become a part of global climate justice movement and take part in influencing international policies.

This dissertation examines two urban social movements – in Berlin and Minneapolis - that ran campaigns for democratically run, public, municipal scale energy utilities. These movements are early attempts to bring movement-based conceptions of energy democracy into urban political institutions.

The movements demanded public utilities advance just urban energy transitions, but more than that, they demanded grassroots participation in and benefit from those transitions. This instituted a demand for self-determination and social control over publicly owned goods (energy utilities). The movements therefore tried to transform state institutions and change what is thought necessary for sustainable energy transitions. This approach to urban energy transitions is unique in combining democratic demands that attempt to re-make the how of local politics and institutions. This remaking is explained as an attempt to institute practices of “commoning.”

Over recent decades, various social movements have established commoning – a system of collective access to and control over a shared need, guided by principles of
self-determination and interrelation through collective action – as a key model for and means of transformation toward alternative socio-ecological relationships. I argue that the two campaigns examined are part of this trend. I develop this argument by showing how these movements undertook a unique strategy that attempted to shift the boundaries of the politically possible and advance specific visions of commoning energy that could extend towards broader socio-ecological and democratic transformation. By conceiving of the state as an open terrain of struggle, it is possible to see practices of commoning in, against, and beyond the state (Cumbers 2015, Angel 2017 and 2019).

Through in-depth participatory case studies and comparative analysis of Berlin and Minneapolis, Climate Municipalism examines how these movements succeeded in creating politics around energy issues and forcing the hand of local governments. It finds that these campaigns succeeded in reworking the terrains of local climate governance and energy systems in selective ways, and in opening up broader discussions of strategies for political transformation, even though they failed to fully install their visions in the respective cities. The dissertation reflects on the outcome of the movements to question how social movements conceptualize their relationship to the state.

This study investigates the relationship between the carbon extractive
sector in Canada and renewable energy development. Specifically, it
examines the strategies employed by Canadian carbon-capital firms to
shape and control alternative energy and considers if we are witnessing
signs of “transition capture” as some oil, gas, and coal firms invest in a
gradual shift toward “climate capitalism.” I investigate first, investments
by large Canada-based fossil fuel companies in renewable energy and
second, interlocking directorate relations between the fossil fuel sector
and the renewables industry. Findings suggest the possibility of a
long-term strategic orientation toward a climate capitalist model of
development by some carbon-capital firms; however, this alignment
remains highly tentative, with evidence pointing to an industry that is
largely without plans for energy transition.

This study provides a public policy framework for the governance of energy democracy toward meeting the United Nation's SDGs, and proposes guidelines for policymakers on designing partnerships that promote renewable energy. An increasing number of multinational enterprises (MNEs) and public organizations are prioritizing energy democracy and decarbonization strategies by investing in renewable energy. However, I argue that energy democracy is not ''just'' about opening up the energy sector to large-scale renewable energy investments. I explore the challenges facing the implementation of energy democracy through a qualitative study conducted from 2013 to 2020 of wind-energy investments at the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, Mexico. A key challenge preventing energy democracy and renewable energy partnerships with indigenous communities at the Isthmus of Tehuantepec is the lack of good governance-corruption, poor accountability, and limited access to information about energy and the environment. Wind-energy investments implemented under the understanding of Partnerships for the Goals may offer sustainable alternatives for reaching the goal of Energy for All and mitigating climate change according to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Depuis quelques années, les coopératives énergétiques citoyennes se sont positionnées comme des actrices majeures de la transition énergétique allemande. En prenant comme point de départ les recherches existantes sur la « démocratie énergétique », nous nous interrogeons dans cet article sur les fondements et les impacts démocratiques de projets participatifs dans le domaine de l’énergie. Pour cela, nous nous appuierons sur les résultats d’une enquête qualitative effectuée au sein de la ville de Iéna (Thuringe, Allemagne), où une coopérative énergétique citoyenne s’est créée en 2011 et a acheté l’année suivante 2 % des actions de l’entreprise municipale d’énergie. À l’aide d’entretiens approfondis, d’une étude de documents et d’observations, nous examinons le travail de légitimation politique nécessaire à la mise en place et au maintien d’un tel projet, ainsi que son impact sur les politiques énergétiques locales. D’une manière générale, la coopérative énergétique a contribué à renforcer la participation citoyenne dans les débats locaux sur l’énergie. Cependant, le cas de Iéna est également révélateur de tensions entre le but initial des fondateurs de la coopérative (faire avancer une transition énergétique inclusive et participative à l’échelle locale) et les intérêts, notamment financiers, de ses membres. Ces tensions contribuent à mettre en danger la légitimité politique de la coopérative comme moteur d’une transition énergétique démocratique.

Mots-clés : démocratie énergétique, coopératives citoyennes, entreprise municipale, transition énergétique, Iéna

For several years, citizen energy cooperatives have become major actors in the German energy transition. Tacking stock on the literature on energy democracy, this article examines the democratic foundations and impacts of participative energy projects. For that purpose, we rely on a qualitative case study analysis of the city of Jena, where a citizen energy cooperative was created in 2011 and bought 2 % of the shares of the municipal energy utility the following year. Through semi-directive interviews, a document analysis and observations, this article analyses the work of building political legitimacy in order to create and maintain this project. It also investigates the concrete impact of this project on local energy policy. Overall, the energy cooperative has contributed to reinforcing participation of the local population in the debates on energy. However, the case of Jena also shows that tensions may arise between the overall goal of the cooperative’s founders (support an inclusive and participative energy transition) and the financial interests of its members. These tensions contribute to threaten the political legitimacy of the cooperative as a driver of a democratic energy transition.

Keywords: energy democracy, citizen cooperatives, municipal utility, energy transition, Jena

Based on the policy document analysis method and a con- ceptual framework derived from Science and Technology Studies, this paper analyses the construction of institutionally legitimated forms of discursive limitation of energy governance in Brazil. The paper ana- lyzes a subset of selected vital policy documents produced by regulatory bodies such as the National Energy Agency (ANEEL) and the Energy Research Office (EPE). As an insight for further research on the gover- nance of energy policy, the paper’s contribution to the debate is to bring to the fore the relevance of recasting the whole process of regulation of distributed energy in terms of an attempt to build a narrative of control over socio-technical innovation with the potential to democratize ac- cess to and use of energy services. This policy narrative’s unspoken goal is to retain control of the Brazilian energy transition at the central level.