Hundreds of active oil wells sit in densely populated and mostly low-income neighborhoods in Los Angeles. A new report details why equity should be central to climate and energy policy in the U.S. to address historical practices.Hundreds of active oil wells sit in densely populated and mostly low-income neighborhoods in Los Angeles. A new report details why equity should be central to climate and energy policy in the U.S. to address historical practices.
"This is the first time that the National Academy of Sciences have devoted so much time and focus on energy justice and equity," says Michael Mendez, a sociologist at the University of California, Irvine, and an author of the report., released in 2021, laid out a broad menu of policies that would result in major cuts to the country's fossil fuel emissions.
Renewable energy costs, for example, have become more competitive to fossil fuels helping to spur the transition along on its own. Within the last decade the cost of utility-scale solar projectsPeople's choices matter. If communities don't want a solar farm in their city limits, or if they don't want electric car charging stations taking up parking spots, those technologies won't spread as fast as they need to.
Christopher Tessum is an air pollution expert at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign who wasn't involved in the report."This is a major technological transition we have to undertake," he says–and it needs to happen faster than any previously undertaken."In the past have not happened equitably. There are clear winners and losers. For this one to succeed, because we need buy-in from everyone, we really need it to be equitable.