Barbara Kates-Garnick

Energy Justice and the First Earth Day

Energy justice is a concept that links Earth Day 2022 and Earth Day 1970.

In 1970, Earth Day was first and foremost a grass roots movement tied to Mother Earth. Many of us were in the throes of protesting the Vietnam War, advocating for Civil and Women’s Rights. Kent State and the invasion of Cambodia were just days away. We saw smog in Los Angeles, polluted rivers in our hometowns, the need for a sustainable, healthy America. We needed the tools and policies to address the problems—in particular, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Clean Air Act.

Yet over the next 50 years, many communities were left out of the solutions: Powerplants and pipelines were sited in poor communities; regulatory and energy decision making excluded community input. There was little transparency and accountability.

For those of us in the energy/environmental field, Earth Day 2022 is a good moment to acknowledge our accountability and to strengthen our commitment to equity in decision making related to energy and climate. It is critical that Fletcher equips the next generation of leaders with the tools to implement a just global energy transition and the vision we hoped to accomplish over 50 years ago.