Energy Security and Justice
Project Goals
The Energy Security and Justice Program investigates how to provide ethical access to energy services and minimize the injustice of current patterns of energy production and use. It explores how to equitably provide available, affordable, reliable, efficient, environmentally benign, proactively governed and socially acceptable energy services to households and consumers. One track of the program focuses on lack of access to electricity and reliance on traditional biomass fuels for cooking in the developing world. Another track analyzes the moral implications of existing energy policies and proposals in the United States.
Energy Security & Justice Team
Benjamin K. Sovacool, PhD. - Science & Technology Studies, 2006
Visiting Associate Professor and Project Manager
Professor Sovacool works as a researcher, professor, and consultant on issues pertaining to energy policy and security, climate change, the environment, sustainability, and science and technology policy. At the National University of Singapore, he led a series of research projects supported by the MacArthur Foundation investigating how to expand access to energy services for impoverished rural communities in Bangladesh, China, India, Laos, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mongolia, Nepal, Papua New Guinea, and Sri Lanka. With a grant from the Singaporean Ministry of Education, he also explored how to improve adaptive capacity and resilience to the impacts of climate change in twelve major metropolitan areas (including cities in North America, South America, Europe, and Asia) in addition to the evaluation of national adaptation projects in Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, and the Maldives. He has consulted for the Asian Development Bank, United Nations Development Program, and United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific on energy poverty, governance, and justice issues.
Before then, Benjamin worked on a large grant from the National Science Foundation's Electric Power Networks Efficiency and Security Program analyzing the barriers to small-scale renewable electricity sources and distributed generation in the United States. He assessed the renewable resource potential of Virginia in conjunction with the Virginia Center for Coal and Energy Research and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. He has also served in research and advisory capacities for the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Semiconductor Materials and Equipment International, U.S. Department of Energy's Climate Change Technology Program, Union of Concerned Scientists, the International Institute for Applied Systems and Analysis near Vienna, Austria, and the International Energy Agency in Paris, France.
Dr. Sovacool has published more than 130 academic articles and presented at more than 60 international conferences and symposia in the past few years. He is the co-editor of Energy and American Society (Springer, 2007) and the editor, author, or co-author of The Dirty Energy Dilemma (Praeger, 2008), Powering the Green Economy (2009, Earthscan), The Routledge Handbook of Energy Security (Routledge, 2010), Contesting the Future of Nuclear Power (World Scientific, 2011), Climate Change and Global Energy Security (MIT Press, 2011), The International Politics of Nuclear Power (Routledge, 2012), and The Governance of Small-Scale Renewable Energy in Developing Asia (Ashgate, 2012). He received his PhD in science and technology studies from the Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University in Blacksburg, Virginia.
Christopher Cooper, M.A. - Mass Communications 2001; JD 2013
Senior Research Fellow
Chris is an expert in national and international energy security policy, transmission expansion and community organizing. He has analyzed the energy security implications of megaprojects in emerging economies, including performing an in-depth case study of large desert solar energy for the Asia Research Institute. He has also written extensively on policies to incentivize distributed generation of small-scale renewable energy units. Under a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy, Chris evaluated the implementation of smart grid pilot programs on low-income and underserved communities in the U.S. As Executive Director of the Network for New Energy Choices (NNEC), he provided strategic guidance to federal and state policymakers and nonprofit organizations on innovative infrastructure investments designed to advance energy security while increasing sustainability. His extensive analysis of renewable portfolio standards was instrumental during the 2007 Congressional effort to adopt a national RPS. With official United Nation's observer status, Chris served as spokesperson for the global nuclear weapons abolition movement during the 2005 U.N. Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty renewal conference. He also directed external communications for the United States' largest public interest group devoted to sustainable city and regional planning. Chris holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from Wake Forest University and earned a Master of Arts degree (cum laude) from the University of Miami.
Shannon Clarke, JD 2013
Research Associate
Shannon specializes in the impact of renewable energy and energy efficiency programs on low-income and rural communities. At the University of North Florida, she researched the socio-economic impact of solar photovoltaic electrification on rural villages in Uttar Pradesh, India. She has analyzed the consequences of Energy Efficiency Block Grants for the National Association of Counties, where she was also instrumental in authoring a guide to financing and developing landfill gas-to-energy projects for U.S. counties. She has also worked as a law clerk in the District of Columbia Office of Administrative Hearings researching and analyzing state and federal regulations and drafting final orders on public benefits, housing and shelter. Shannon holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology from the University of North Florida.
Meredith Crafton, M.A. - Environmental Law & Policy 2012, JD 2012
Research Associate
Meredith specializes in international social justice issues surrounding conventional and nuclear energy generation. She helped coordinate the Government Accountability Project's Russia Program, organizing a conference on energy policy and whistleblower rights in St. Petersburg, Russia. She has researched and reported on site worker exposure and contractor malfeasance at the Hanford Nuclear Waste Treatment Plant, uncovering information used in a 60 Minutes expose'. For VLS's Environment and Natural Resources Law Clinic, Meredith researched Montana's coal mining and constitutional law and policy to draft a motion submitted to a district court for the State of Montana. In 2003, she also performed field research on conservation, militarization and revolution in Chiapas, Mexico. Meredith has a Bachelor of Arts degree in sustainability studies from Hampshire College.
Jay Eidsness, JD 2013
Research Associate
Jay specializes in the ecological implications of energy production on local communities. In 2010, he organized volunteers and local leaders to establish urban community gardens in Peru. He has also analyzed the effects of riparian health on native flora under a project funded by the United States Forest Service. As a Student Certified Attorney for Central Minnesota Legal Services, he has argued motions on housing and consumer protection for underserved families in Minnesota. Jay earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in communication and biology from St. John's University.
Katie Johnson, JD 2013
Research Associate
Katie has an expertise in renewable energy markets and the effects of energy production on resource availability. For the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio, Katie authored a report for the Ohio General Assembly recommending policies for stimulating the states renewable energy market. She has worked with Dr. Allen Prindle analyzing the relationship between population growth and water well usage and evaluated how Ohio's energy regulations affect the state's water quality. She has studied in France at the Universite de Toulouse Il-Le Mirail and in the Netherlands at the University of Maastricht. Katie graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Science degree in economics from Otterbein University.
David Zoppo, JD 2013
Research Associate
David specializes in the energy justice and sustainability implications of multinational corporations. For the ABB Group, North America's leading power and automation technology company, David evaluated internal company safety regulations, reviewed the sustainability of the company's supply chain management procedures and drafted recommendations to improve its compliance with state regulations. He has worked in refugee camps in South Africa and teamed with the AIDS Law Project to advocate for the civil and economic rights of people displaced during a series of xenophobic attacks there in 2008. David holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science and history from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
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