Nikki Luke, "Electric Life: Utility Regulation and the Fight for Energy Democracy" (MIT Press, 2026)

About this episode

Dr. Nikki Luke discusses her book on utility regulation and the fight for energy democracy in Atlanta.

Electric Life: Utility Regulation and the Fight for Energy Democracy (MIT Press, 2026) by Dr. Nikki Luke traces the intertwined history of Atlanta’s racialized uneven development and growing electricity use to show how electricity infrastructure shapes everyday life. Nikki Luke looks at how quotidian relationships with the electric utility catalyze intersectional organizing for energy democracy. She also investigates the legal and material construction of the investor-owned utility as a regulated monopoly and the state public service commission that regulates it.Contemporary organizing for energy democracy questions how the utility and the systems that govern it need to change to ensure energy affordability, provide remedy and reparation for enduring environmental and energy injustice, and build a just and equitable energy transition from fossil fuels. Bridging urban, environmental, and labor studies, the author demonstrates how these demands to change the utility emerge from the tradition of civil rights, labor, and environmental organizing for fair treatment from the utility, affordable energy, protection from pollution, and good jobs. The book is available Open Access. This…

People in this episode

Host: Miranda Melcher

Guest: Nikki Luke

Topics covered

• utility regulation
• energy democracy
• racialized development
• environmental justice
• labor studies
• civil rights

Keywords

• electricity
• infrastructure
• energy affordability
• environmental injustice
• intersectional organizing
• regulated monopoly

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: MIT Press

Places: Atlanta

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