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What with a growing climate crisis and increasing uncertainty
over the future of fossil fuels, it can be no surprise that the
question "What's the alternative to current energy systems?" is
in the air. And there has been no shortage of answers competing
for space and attention. In energy policy today, the main
conflict is not between energy business as usual and "The
Alternative", but among the different proposed alternatives
themselves.
What are these different alternatives? What kind of changes are
being proposed? Who would bring them about, and how? Where is
the conflict among different energy alternatives going? Where
might activists intervene most strategically to build alliances
to bring about the changes in energy systems that are necessary
- as well as to oppose initiatives that will only make things
worse?
It is hard even to survey this territory. The problem is not
just that the suggested solutions are diverse. The questions
being asked are also different, as are the criteria for
answering them, the vocabularies in which they are expressed,
and the politics with which they are associated. Figuring out
what the assumptions and audiences of the various alternatives
are is half the work of assessing where a democratic and
survivable energy future might lie. The point of this report is
not to simplify the debate over energy alternatives, but to
clarify how complex it is. If the need for action is urgent,
then so is the need for an understanding capable of making that
action effective.
A Sense of the Territory
As a start on answering these questions, a sample of energy
alternatives proposals and the questions they address is
displayed over the following pages, roughly and naively divided
accord - ing to whether the proposals appear global (Table 1),
national (Table 2) or local or individual (Table 3) in scope.
The sample is tiny. It does not pretend to be representative.
But it is diverse enough to suggest how hard it is to understand
what the alternative energy debate is about and how hard it
might be to make it possible for everyone who is interested to
participate.