by Sophie Kelly
In the first part of our review, we covered a key takeaway from Stokes’s book: through political spending and the influence of powerful interest groups, fossil fuel companies and electric utilities have halted climate action, reversed clean energy policies, and fueled climate denial.
Throughout the book, Stokes is honest about the realities of the climate crisis and what it will take to decarbonize the US electricity system, the "first linchpin globally for mitigating climate change and achieving net zero emissions."
If we target 100% clean energy by 2050, that will mean “at least a 8-fold increase” in the annual pace of renewable energy growth. And for 100% clean energy by 2035 that would mean "at least a 12-fold increase over the best years for renewables growth." Either way, it is clear that the rate of development will have to be ambitious and unprecedented.
On the morning of Dec. 18, 2020, three 775-foot stacks of the Navajo Generating Station outside of Page, AZ were imploded after the coal-fired power plant had ceased operation in November 2019. There is already momentum towards decarbonization and this will have to be one part of the puzzle in moving our electricity system to 100% clean energy. Source: David Wallace/The Republic
Stokes compels the reader to consider the magnitude of the energy transition, but centers her narrative in momentum and hope. Pondering the question of how we are faced by a destructive and catastrophic climate crisis, she highlights a common answer that most of us have probably heard at some point in our lives. “We are all to blame”... our individual actions are what caused the climate crisis and in order to reverse things, we have to radically change the choices we make. In one of the most powerful commentaries in the book, she states that this response is “ahistorical and ignorant of how institutions shape the choices we can make [...] We are not all equally to blame.” Fossil fuel companies and electric utilities are directly responsible for so many of the factors complicit in the climate crisis and have used their immense influence to create doubt, effectively allowing them to continue polluting and endangering the public.
After establishing this key distinction between individual responsibility for the climate crisis and the critical role of industries and their interest groups, Stokes leaves the reader with constructive advice for clean energy advocates. There are 4 key pieces of advice:
Reform Regulatory Institutions
- Advocate for public interest intervenors to be compensated for their time at public utility commissions (PUCs)
- Provide more resources to PUCs
- Increase transparency in PUC planning proceedings
- Regulate corporate influence over PUCs (ex: improve rules around corporate donations)
Focus less on ownership
- Publicly owned utilities (POUs) and investor owned utilities (IOUs) alike contribute to deregulation and anti-renewables campaigns
- Focus on reforming institutions rather than creating more POUs and “fighting tooth and nail” with electric utilities
Strengthen advocates’ networks
- Continue the work of the Energy Foundation in the 1990s and invest in inter or multi?)-state networks
- Be open to unlikely coalitions when resources are tight
- Isolate and concentrate opponents in one area
Expand the scope of conflict
- Expand the scope of climate policy to include income inequality and other systemic inequality that intersects with the climate crisis. For example, advocate for raising the minimum wage and bolstering social safety nets for the energy transition
Short Circuiting Policy is an informative and fascinating read that offers a wide array of wisdom and concrete solutions for how clean energy advocates can begin the energy transition and usher in a new era of rapid change. We are grateful to Leah Stokes for her leadership in this book and throughout the clean energy sphere. And, if you’re craving more Leah Stokes content, we highly recommend her podcast with Dr. Katherine Wilkinson, A Matter of Degrees!