Environmental Politics is a blanket term that binds, labels, and classifies countless ideas and theories around this intangible thing known as our environment. Pena often defines the environment as the place where we "eat, play, learn and work". So to define environmental politics we first realize that environment is everything and anything, but if we zoom in on coupling terms like energy with politics we see less of this inexhaustible wadi that can be filled with conceptual ideas, but rather a more specific direction pointing toward branding, image production, policies, infrastructure, economy, social movements, development, etc.
This last week I sat down to dinner with a Senior Policy Analyst for ACEEE (American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy) to discuss her work at Dinner with a Dawg. While discussing her current endeavors, or what she calls "term papers" I realized that I had no idea about the other. The other are people who work in energy efficiency because it is logical for an independent state, not necessarily for the "green peace" love of nature.
This person focuses on researching that promotes greater energy efficiency primarily in the U.S. by working directly with policy makers and regulators to ensure that energy efficiency and distributed energy systems are sustainable for future energy demands. She basically views energy as something that needs to be harnessed in a way that is more efficient so that we can continue to match our needs with the demand; this is most commonly an economists paradigm of enviornment and really energy politics.
When we think of economist opinions toward energy politics we think this;
"alternative energy sources= New locations to drill for gas and oil"
...but after doing some research on the ACEEE a person would only conclude that energy politics involve and policy making occurs with a dynamic group of individuals that represent a broad spectrum of ideas, passions, and interests. The goal might be long term independence and sustainability for the U.S. which can be disguised as natural resource preservation, wildlife conservation, economic sustainability via efficient energy. These paths are in constant disputes in the media as anti one or the other, when in all actuality it takes a collaborations of these paths to form a road that leads to the success of these goals.
Sometimes the answers are far too obvious to be considered academic or innovative, but unfortunately we often classify people using essentialist theory, and therefore use essentialist solutions. We rally around fixtures and ideas that promote our goal using our path without considering that others might be working toward the same goal. This limits the impact of intention as it creates a stratified states, and tons of red tape (keeping policy makers from actually instituting plans into action). What I learned from ACEEE is that we just need to use dynamic thinking to develop a cohesive network of collaborative solutions.
-JC
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