Towards Energy as a Human Right with Dominic Bednar

Описание: The United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals promote access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for all, yet millions of American households suffer from energy poverty, threatening their continued access to electricity. A household is energy poor when they cannot meet energy needs. Disparities in access to affordable and sustainable household energy have been documented spatially, racially, and economically. Despite its prevalence, the US has not formally recognized energy poverty as a problem distinct from general poverty at the federal level, which limits effective responses.

While policies supporting energy protections have been in place for years, they vary spatially. The COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 unveiled the entrenched environmental and energy injustices that threaten public health at the household level and inspired energy protection responses to address pandemic-caused economic hardship. This talk explores the responses implemented in 25 major metropolitan areas in the United States.

In this talk, Dr. Bednar employs a content analysis of policy language to examine the urgency and binding level of COVID-19 era protections, demarcating them as either mandatory or voluntary measures. He characterizes a suite of residential energy protections as 'energy resiliency responses' required to reduce vulnerability to energy poverty and build resilience during the pandemic. He finds differences in consumer energy protections among low-income and highly energy burdened households and conclude that protections are unevenly deployed across the country. These findings motivate contemporary national, state, and local energy poverty recognition and responses that center personal and economic well-being during and after crises.