Book Talk with Professor Trish Kahle

How much risk—whether bodily, environmental, economic, or political—is acceptable in a democratic energy system? And, just as importantly, who should bear that risk? What do energy producers and energy consumers owe to each other and how did we come to see these obligations as legitimate? Who constitutes the proper community of interest in energy decision-making? How should we evaluate the fairness of their energy system? Can energy systems ever really be democratic for all the people who are part of it? These questions have a long history. Indeed, they were at the core of energy policy-making in the modern United States which was about not only managing fuels but also negotiating the relationship between coal miners and the rest of the country, which depended on the electric power and steel produced with the coal they mined. Energy governance cuts to the heart of persistent questions about justice, democracy, and equality.

The conversation considered the uncertain relationship between coal and democracy in US history as miners’ democratic aspirations confronted the deadly record of the country’s coal mines. Miners and their communities bore the burdens of energy production while reaping far fewer of the benefits of energy consumption. But they insisted that death in the mines, far from being inevitable, was a political choice. As coal miners’ struggled to democratize the workplace, secure civil and social rights, and obtain restitution for the human toll of progress, they reshaped U.S. laws, regulatory administrations, and political imaginaries.

Speakers:
Trish Kahle, Georgetown University in Qatar
Firat Oruc, Georgetown University in Qatar
Victoria Googasian, Georgetown University in Qatar

Moderator: Zahra Babar, Executive Director – CIRS, Georgetown University in Qatar