In Berkeley Talks episode 228, Tony Reames, a professor of environmental justice at the University of Michigan, discusses how the U.S. energy system has persistently harmed marginalized communities, a result of legacies of government-sanctioned policies, like redlining, land theft and resource extraction. He goes on to emphasize the need for intentional efforts to undo these harms. 

“When we think about energy justice, the goal is to achieve equity in both the social and economic participation in our energy system,” says Reames, who served as deputy director for energy justice at the U.S. Department of Energy during the Biden-Harris administration.

In 2015, he says, some 14% of U.S. households couldn’t afford their energy bills, and 21% had to decide between buying food and medicine or paying their energy bills. Eleven percent were keeping their homes at an unhealthy temperature, either too hot or too cold, because they couldn’t afford energy or they couldn’t repair their HVAC system. Higher proportions of income spent on energy are linked to negative health outcomes, including premature deaths and a decrease in average life expectancy. 

“Black households are more likely to live in communities in the shadows of fossil fuel generation,” says Reames. “Other communities of color are first and worst to experience the impact of climate emergencies. Communities with economies that rely on fossil fuels experience harm as our energy economy shifts. Think about predominantly white communities in Appalachia, offshore drilling communities on the Gulf of Mexico, and refining communities like Richmond here in the Bay Area.”

Although no country explicitly guarantees equal access to energy as a right in its laws, he says, he advocates for using important principles — like fairness, inclusion and repairing harm — to understand who is being left out or treated unfairly in our energy system, and how to guide our energy policies so they are more just and equitable. 

This event took place on Dec. 4, 2024, as part of UC Berkeley's Charles M. and Martha Hitchcock Lectures.

Watch a video of the conversation on the Graduate Lectures website.

Listen to the episode and read the transcript on UC Berkeley News (news.berkeley.edu/podcasts).

Music by Blue Dot Sessions.

Photo courtesy of Tony Reames.

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