Transforming Texas-style commodification: Sovereignty, resilience, and energy justice

Whiskey Sours & Steve Vanderheiden (2023). “Transforming Texas-style commodification: Sovereignty, resilience, and energy justice.” Journal of Urban Affairs DOI: 10.1080/07352166.2023.2268760

Abstract

We examine the 2021 collapse of the Texas electrical grid as a case study of vulnerabilities introduced by the commodification of energy systems. While theories of commodification do predict several of the observed impacts of this experiment in privatization and deregulation of public utilities, we attribute these impacts to a tendentious conception of “Texas-style” sovereignty that is not captured by existing accounts of energy justice. By supplementing existing conceptions of energy justice with an evolved conception of sovereignty, we hope to provide a more capacious and defensible normative foundation for energy systems than is available elsewhere, and one capable of diagnosing and avoiding the trappings of Texas-style energy ideals.