Publications
Discover Shalanda H. Baker’s groundbreaking publications
Revolutionary Power: An Activist’s Field Guide to the Energy Transition situating energy transition within broader struggles for civil rights and offering practical guidance for engaging in energy policy development (Island Press).
In September 2017, Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico, completely upending the energy grid of the small island. The nearly year-long power outage that followed vividly shows how the new climate reality intersects with race and access to energy. The island is home to brown and black US citizens who lack the political power of those living in the continental US. As the world continues to warm and storms like Maria become more commonplace, it is critical that we rethink our current energy system to enable reliable, locally produced, and locally controlled energy without replicating the current structures of power and control.
In Revolutionary Power, Shalanda Baker arms those made most vulnerable by our current energy system with the tools they need to remake the system in the service of their humanity. She argues that people of color, poor people, and indigenous people must engage in the creation of the new energy system in order to upend the unequal power dynamics of the current system.
Revolutionary Power is a playbook for the energy transformation complete with a step-by-step analysis of the key energy policy areas that are ripe for intervention. Baker tells the stories of those who have been left behind in our current system and those who are working to be architects of a more just system. She draws from her experience as an energy-justice advocate, a lawyer, and a queer woman of color to inspire activists working to build our new energy system.
Climate change will force us to rethink the way we generate and distribute energy and regulate the system. But how much are we willing to change the system? This unique moment in history provides an unprecedented opening for a deeper transformation of the energy system, and thus, an opportunity to transform society. Revolutionary Power shows us how.
More publications
Harmonizing Energy Justice: An Analysis of Transdisciplinary Literatures and Activist Frameworks to Achieve a Just Energy Transition (harmonizing social science, law, and activist approaches to energy justice to create a coherent approach) (work in progress).
Climate Change Fundamentalism (empirical analysis of “Big Green” positions on state-level climate change legislation and arguing for equity-based approaches to policy) (work in progress).
Just Energy Auctions (proposing electricity auction model for Mexico to incorporate community development and align with international doctrine of free, prior, and informed consent of indigenous peoples) (work in progress).
The Energy Justice Stakes Embedded in the New Energy Metering Policy Debates in Beyond Zero-Sum Environmentalism (Sarah Krakoff, Melissa Powers, and Jonathan Rosenbloom, eds., Environmental Law Institute, 2019) (exploring and critiquing net energy meter policy debates in United States).
Anti-Resilience: A Roadmap for Transformational Justice within the Energy System, 54 Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review 1 (2019) (Lead Article) (exploring the ways energy transitional policies and climate justice theoretical frameworks reify inequality).
Competing Tensions in the Global Energy Transition: A View from the Frontlines in Energy Justice: US and International Perspectives (Raya Salter, Carmen G. Gonzalez, Elizabeth Ann Kronk Warner, eds., Edward Elgar Publishing, 2018) (exploring implementation of Mexico’s energy).
Questioning the Value of Solar, in Beyond Zero-Sum Environmentalism, 47 Environmental Law Reporter 10328, 10345 (April 2017).
Unlocking the Energy Commons, in Law for the New Economy (Melissa Scanlan and Gus Speth eds., Edward Elgar Publishing, 2017) (arguing for expanded opportunities for community participation in renewable energy generation vis-à-vis community solar legislation).
Mexican Energy Reform, Climate Change, and Energy Justice in Indigenous Communities, 56 Natural Resources Journal 369 (Summer, 2016) (discussing Mexican energy reform and opportunities for community participation in energy development).
Climate Change and International Economic Law, 43 Ecology Law Quarterly 53 (2016) (exploring the efficacy of the doctrine of fundamental change of circumstances in treaty renegotiation and exit when a State is affected by climate change).
Adaptive Law in the Anthropocene, 90 Chicago Kent L. Rev. 563 (2015) (arguing that development law should incorporate resiliency principles).
Project Finance and Sustainable Development in the Global South, in International Environmental Law: Perspectives from the Global South (Shawkat Alam et al. eds., Cambridge University Press, 2015) (discussing role of project finance in sustainable development).
Is Fracking the Next Financial Crisis? A Development Lens for Understanding Systemic Risk and Governance, 87 Temple L. Rev. 229 (2015) (suggesting a broader lens for viewing systemic risk and governance issues in hydraulic fracturing).
Why the IFC’s Free, Prior, and Informed Consent Policy Doesn’t Matter (Yet) to Indigenous Communities Affected by Development Projects, 30 Wis. Int’l L.J. 668 (2012) (discussing meaning of “free, prior, and informed consent”).
Unmasking Project Finance: Risk Mitigation, Risk Inducement, and an Invitation to Development Disaster?, 6 Texas J. Oil, Gas, & Energy Law 273 (Spring 2011) (discussing risk mitigation mechanisms that characterize project finance transactions).
Telling: Living with “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” 57 J. Legal Educ. 187 (2007).