Place-Based Energy Transitions: Who Decides and Who Benefits in a Clean Energy Future

About this episode

The episode discusses the just energy transition and the implications of community governance on who benefits from clean energy initiatives.

What does a truly just energy transition look like — and who gets to define it? In this episode of People, Places, Planet , host Sebastian Duque Rios sits down with Nadia Ahmad (Barry University School of Law) and Danielle Stokes (University of Richmond School of Law), collaborators on the Just Energy Transitions and Place (JET Place) project, a multi-institutional research initiative examining how place, land use law, and community governance shape who bears the burdens and who captures the benefits of America's shift to clean energy. Drawing on fieldwork across Florida, Louisiana, Kansas, and Pennsylvania, they make the case that decarbonization without redistribution isn't a just transition at all. From federalism and zoning conflicts to power purchase agreements, IRA rollbacks, and the structural barriers facing marginalized communities, this conversation surfaces the deeply human stakes behind every permitting decision and planning process — and explores what it looks like when communities successfully reclaim agency in the energy future being built around them. The conversation also zeroes in on Florida as a potentially cautionary case: a state with extraordinary solar…

People in this episode

Host: Sebastian Duque Rios

Guests: Nadia Ahmad, Danielle Stokes

Topics covered

• energy transition
• clean energy
• community governance
• decarbonization
• zoning conflicts
• marginalized communities

Keywords

• Just Energy Transitions and Place
• JET Place
• Florida
• Louisiana
• Kansas
• Pennsylvania

Mentioned in this episode

Places: America, Florida, Louisiana, Kansas, Pennsylvania

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