Paper Short Abstract:

A just transition must look beyond the economic impacts of offshore renewable energy on large-scale industries to also consider the sociocultural consequences for subsistence fisheries. This paper will explore how coastal communities are included in, or excluded from, offshore energy planning.

Paper Abstract:

The transition away from fossil fuels offers an opportunity to rethink energy development and resource management, undoing the colonial practices of fossil fuel extraction to produce energy that is not only better for the environment but also more equitable. Most previous studies of offshore renewable energy have focused on the economic impacts of offshore wind farms on large-scale industries from tourism to commercial fisheries; however, a just transition must also consider the sociocultural consequences for small-scale and subsistence fisheries.

This paper will reflect on how offshore renewable energy planning could accommodate local community values and ecosystem conservation, while still working toward global climate goals. For those whose livelihoods depend on the ocean, there is a special relationship to place, forming “communities at sea” (Haggett et al 2020). A just transition requires careful consideration of these relationships between people and the sea. Collaborative, community-based research can aid in finding locally-relevant solutions to global climate goals, but even in collaborative research, power dynamics are not always equal. This paper will reflect on the colonial histories of resource extraction and the ways in which resource colonialism continues today in offshore renewable energy development, introducing a planned research project on marine hydrokinetic (tidal) energy and the participation of fishing communities in Alaska.