Skip to main content
  • Book
  • © 2017

Energy Democracy

Advancing Equity in Clean Energy Solutions

  • The first book to frame the growing energy democracy movement
  • Offers diverse racial, cultural, and generational perspectives
  • Provides a geographical range of examples across the U.S. from rural Mississippi to the South Bronx

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check for access.

Table of contents (12 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xi
  2. Introduction

    • Denise Fairchild, Al Weinrub
    Pages 1-19
  3. The Case for a Just Transition

    • Michelle Mascarenhas-Swan
    Pages 37-56
  4. Energy Democracy Through Local Energy Equity

    • Strela Cervas, Anthony Giancatarino
    Pages 57-75
  5. Organizing for Energy Democracy in Rural Electric Cooperatives

    • Derrick Johnson, Ashura Lewis
    Pages 93-112
  6. Democratizing Municipal-Scale Power

    • Al Weinrub
    Pages 139-171
  7. New Economy Energy Cooperatives Bring Power to the People

    • Lynn Benander, Diego Angarita Horowitz, Isaac Baker
    Pages 195-217
  8. Building Power Through Community-Based Project Development

    • Anya Schoolman, Ben Delman
    Pages 219-238
  9. Conclusion: Building an Energy Democracy Movement

    • Denise Fairchild
    Pages 239-249
  10. Back Matter

    Pages 251-273

About this book

This volume brings together racial, cultural, and generational perspectives. This diversity is bound together by a common operating frame: that the global fight to save the planet—to conserve and restore our natural resources to be life-sustaining—must fully engage community residents and must change the larger economy to be sustainable, democratic, and just. The contributors offer their perspectives and approaches to climate and clean energy from rural Mississippi, to the South Bronx, to Californian immigrant and refugee communities, to urban and semi-rural communities in the Northeast. Taken together, the contributions in this book show what an alternative, democratized energy future can look like, and will inspire others to take up the struggle to build the energy democracy movement.

Editors and Affiliations

  • Emerald Cities Collaborative (ECC), Washington, USA

    Denise Fairchild

  • Local Clean Energy Alliance (LCEA), Oakland, USA

    Al Weinrub

About the editors

Denise Fairchild is president/CEO of Emerald Cities Collaborative, a national nonprofit organization of business, labor, and community groups dedicated to climate resilience strategies that produce environmental, economic, and equity outcomes.

Al Weinrub is coordinator of the Local Clean Energy Alliance (LCEA), the Bay Area's largest clean energy coalition. The LCEA promotes the equitable development and democratization of local renewable energy resources as key to addressing climate change and building sustainable and resilient communities. Weinrub is coordinator of the statewide California Alliance for Community Energy, serves on the Steering Committee of the Oakland Climate Action Coalition, and is a member of the Sierra Club California Energy-Climate Committee.

Bibliographic Information