Date of Award
2024
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Natural Resources
First Advisor
Josh Farley
Abstract
The urgency of energy transition is driven by growing public concerns around climate change and is underpinned with a desire for a more sustainable and equitable world. However, these more sustainable and equitable worlds are being negotiated on uneven terrains of power that privilege counterintuitive positions on the necessity of, and approach to, the phase out of fossil fuels, and favor initiatives that continue unequal distributions of wealth and resources. This dissertation investigates the obstacles in the way of just and ecological futures by scrutinizing the relationship between power, narrative, and materialities within the socioeconomic structures of our current capitalist system. To do so, it situates around contemporary energy transitions within the physical and cultural landscapes of historical fossil fuel regions in Canada and the United States.
In the first study, I explore the production and circulation of narratives shaping pro-fossil fuel energy discourses in Canada. I use computational text analysis methods to unpack the narrative of Canadian energy constructed by a government funded provincial corporation in Alberta and identify a number of discursive tactics commonly used by the fossil fuel industry to reify fossil fuels' dominance. In the second study I draw on the experiences of individuals employed in the oil and gas industry in northern Alberta and West Texas to theorize the relationship between the alienation of workers and the adoption of narratives in defense of capital. I demonstrate how the structure of employment and the nature of work in the industry lead to conflicting conceptualizations of self and meaningful work. This conflict is exploited by fossil fuel actors to perpetuate subjectivities in support of continued extraction. The third study analyzes energy transition initiatives that leverage the landscapes and infrastructures of fossil fuels' past to operationalize narratives of just and ecological futures. Through a critical analysis of two projects developing solar projects on former fossil fuel sites in Alberta and Appalachia, I explore what it means to enact a just transition. While both initiatives address histories of extraction, dispel the perceived threats of solar, and position themselves as promising innovations in energy transition, they differ in the ways each redistributes power or entrenches systemic inequalities.
Energy transitions represent more than technological progress or a solution to climate change - they are opportunities to correct past harms, redistribute power, and imagine more desirable futures. However, in regions of historical fossil fuel extraction discursive power is being wielded to protect fossil fuel's dominance, maintain existing power dynamics, and draw communities into polarized politics around climate change and energy's future. As we work toward the enactment of just transitions, this dissertation encourages readers to contemplate the relationships between histories of exploitation, class dynamics, and ideological influences.
Language
en
Number of Pages
131 p.
Recommended Citation
Egler, Megan, "Power, Narrative, and Energy Transitions in the Fossil Fuel Landscapes of North America" (2024). Graduate College Dissertations and Theses. 1834.
https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/graddis/1834