Courses in the City: Energy Justice

Professor Roopali Phadke
City partners: Citizens Utility Board; Senator Marty’s Office in the Minnesota Legislature; Community Power Minnesota; Clean Energy Resource Teams (CERTs)
Distance from campus: All within 5.2 miles 

Course Description
Energy justice builds on the concepts of environmental and climate justice, with a focus on the visible and invisible infrastructures that produce, deliver, maintain and transform our economies and societies. Topics will include pipelines (Standing Rock), waste disposal (Yucca Mountain nuclear storage), and issues around the fracking (Bakken). Among many things, we will read Tim Mitchell’s book Carbon Democracy and Sara Wylie’s Fracktivism. The course will also focus on connecting with community based organizations invested in pursuing energy justice. 

What do you hope students will learn?
“I hope my students gain a deep understanding of climate and energy justice, specifically of the kinds of policies and programs that support the transition to clean energy.” 

What projects are you doing in the city?
“Students are partnering with four organizations and developing a research report to support the work of the organization. This is a way to deepen relationships with the community. It creates a reciprocal relationship because students contribute to the organization’s work in a meaningful way. Since we went remote, we are working in small groups on our community partner projects. We’ve been able to continue that and our partners have been really generous in adjusting their schedules and expectations. My hope is that the work students start in this course can continue through internships this summer and into next year.” 

Brooke Carey ’20 (Northfield, Minn.)
Environmental studies and educational studies double major

“We are working with Senator Marty’s office in the Minnesota legislature. Our task is to find the best way to incentivize a private sector precious metals recovery system to help mitigate the need for copper and nickel mining in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCA) watershed. Ideally, these recovered materials will aid in the production of renewable energy apparatuses, such as solar panels and wind turbines. Our final product will be a memo that lays out our plan as a guide for further action as well as a primer for bringing other legislators into the loop.”