Kuhl, Laura and Perez-Lugo, Marla and Arriaga Serrano, Carlos and Ortiz-Garcia, Cecilio and Ellis, Ryan and Stephens, Jennie C.
(2024)
Crises, Coloniality, and Energy Transformations in Puerto Rico.
In:
Confronting Climate Coloniality: Decolonizing Pathways for Climate Justice. (eds) F.Sultana.
Taylor & Francis, pp. 188-203.
ISBN 978-1-003-46597- 3, 978- 1-032-73791- 1, 978-1-032-73785- 0
Abstract
Increased attention to inclusive processes and distributed engagement is essential to
ensure injustices are not perpetuated during energy transitions (Bennett et al. 2019;
Markard, Geels & Raven 2020; Newell & Simms 2021; Sovacool 2021). Energy
system change that focuses narrowly on transforming the technical components of
the system without transforming the underlying socio-political dynamics reinforces
power differentials, preventing a more just and equitable future (Stephens 2019).
Crises and disasters provide opportunities for re-envisioning energy systems, but
despite the “windows of opportunity” that such moments present, the changes
brought on by disruptive events are not guaranteed to lead to more just futures
(Birkland 1997; O’Donovan 2017; Ellis 2020; Kinol & Kuhl 2023). The conditions
that make either re-entrenchment or transformation more likely are not well understood, particularly in contexts of coloniality in which power dynamics are highly unequal and decision-making authority is external to the local context. Coloniality
refers to the “long-standing patterns of power that emerged as a result of colonialism, but that define culture, labor intersubjective relations, and knowledge production well beyond the strict limits of colonial administrations” (Maldonado-Torres 2007, p. 243) and, as de Onís (2018) articulates, energy is a critical system in which coloniality operates, particularly due to the extractive nature of energy production (de Onís 2018). Especially after disasters when change is perceived to be “urgent”, transformation may reinforce existing power dynamics and exacerbate inequalities (Blythe et al. 2018; Jones, Kuhl & Matthews 2020; Schipper et al. 2021).Through a case study of Puerto Rico, this chapter explores the ways that crises
have influenced the visions of the future of the energy system for different actors, acknowledging that visioning is a critical component of the transformation process.
This chapter seeks to understand the role of crises in shaping narratives of energy
transitions, and to engage with the literature on climate coloniality to better understand challenges for energy transformation under contexts of coloniality. Hopkinset al. (2020) and Ghosh et al. (2021) call for sustainability transitions scholarship to engage more deeply with post and de-colonial scholarship, and McGowen and Antadze (2023) reflect on how attention to coloniality and the “dark side of trans-
formations” (Blythe et al. 2018) reshape their own previous analysis of sustainability transitions.
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