can gain a useful perspective on these issues by analyzing the history of energy transport infrastructures. Over the last two centuries, Americans have invested massive quantities of capital, labor, time, and material into technological systems to transport energy. Coal canals, oil pipelines, and electricity transmission wires have revolutionized the nation's energy consumption patterns, transformed the environment, and given rise to a fossil fuel dependent society. They have also created numerous inequalities. In particular, they have promoted unequal distributions of energy, money, and environmental harms. In the rest of this essay, I illustrate these points with examples from my research on the history of coal canals, oil pipelines, and electricity transmission wires in the mid-Atlantic region from 1820 to 1930 (Jones, 2009 , forthcoming ). Though the past rarely repeats itself directly, these anecdotes suggest strategies and policy measures we can pursue to design more just infrastructure systems.
...MoreDescription Focuses on the “history of coal canals, oil pipelines, and electricity transmission wires in the mid-Atlantic region from 1820 to 1930.” (from the introduction)
Book
Rigney, Peter;
(2010)
Trains, Coal and Turf: Transport in Emergency Ireland
(/isis/citation/CBB001320095/)
Article
Jones, Christopher F.;
(2010)
A Landscape of Energy Abundance: Anthracite Coal Canals and the Roots of American Fossil Fuel Dependence, 1820--1860
(/isis/citation/CBB001021188/)
Article
Tarr, Joel A.;
(2014)
Toxic Legacy: The Environmental Impact of the Manufactured Gas Industry in the United States
(/isis/citation/CBB001421227/)
Article
S. George Pemberton;
(2012)
John Joyce Carter (1842-1917): Civil War Hero & Petroleum Mogul
(/isis/citation/CBB731484837/)
Thesis
Shulman, Peter Adam;
(2007)
Empire of Energy: Environment, Geopolitics, and American Technology before theAge of Oil
(/isis/citation/CBB001561505/)
Article
Cooke, Jason;
(2014)
Property as a Pillar of Oil-Based Capitalism: The Case of the Southern Pacific Company in Southern California, 1865--1926
(/isis/citation/CBB001451667/)
Article
Shulman, Peter A.;
(2010)
Linking Energy and Climate (before 1974)
(/isis/citation/CBB001221291/)
Book
Adam M. Romero;
(2021)
Economic Poisoning: Industrial Waste and the Chemicalization of American Agriculture
(/isis/citation/CBB940384528/)
Book
Christopher F. Jones;
(2014)
Routes of Power: Energy and Modern America
(/isis/citation/CBB824368541/)
Book
Charles Blanchard;
(2021)
The Extraction State: A History of Natural Gas in America
(/isis/citation/CBB393886172/)
Article
Quataert, Donald;
Gutman, David;
(2012)
Coal Mines, the Palace, and Struggles over Power, Capital, and Justice in the Late Ottoman Empire
(/isis/citation/CBB001200949/)
Book
Daniel French;
(2017)
When They Hid the Fire: A History of Electricity and Invisible Energy in America
(/isis/citation/CBB324123746/)
Article
Steven Gray;
(2017)
Fuelling mobility: Coal and Britain's naval power, c. 1870–1914
(/isis/citation/CBB295663741/)
Article
Madureira, Nuno Luís;
(2010)
Oil in the Age of Steam
(/isis/citation/CBB001421529/)
Book
Lucier, Paul;
(2008)
Scientists and Swindlers: Consulting on Coal and Oil in America, 1820--1890
(/isis/citation/CBB000951111/)
Review
Benjamin K. Sovacool;
(2016)
Review of "Coal and Empire: The Birth of Energy Security in Industrial America"
(/isis/citation/CBB725920453/)
Article
Khristich, Alla;
Tatarchuk, Vitaliy;
(2013)
Conversion Developments for Oil-and-Gas Extractive Industry of USSR in the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute in 60--70th Years of XX Century
(/isis/citation/CBB001321276/)
Book
David Bond;
(2022)
Negative Ecologies: Fossil Fuels and the Discovery of the Environment
(/isis/citation/CBB856832723/)
Article
Carolan, Michael S.;
(2009)
Ethanol versus Gasoline: The Contestation and Closure of a Socio-technical System in the USA
(/isis/citation/CBB000953567/)
Book
Suvobrata Sarkar;
(2021)
Let there be Light: Engineering, Entrepreneurship and Electricity in Colonial Bengal, 1880–1945
(/isis/citation/CBB280101147/)
Be the first to comment!