Energy Democracies for Sustainable Futures - Chapter 34: Contested scales of democratic decision-making and procedural justice in energy transitions

Many academics and practitioners of energy development have recently turned their gaze to the importance of democracy and justice. Indeed, published literature has exploded in recent years in particular, with insights informing local development patterns and macro-scale policy initiatives. In this chapter, we address what we see as an important gap in the energy democracy literature. We do so through an exploration of the tensions between democracy and procedural justice across two diverse case studies from Canada (wind energy) and the United States (oil and gas). Together, we identify a common scalar mismatch between the interests and power of those exercising democracy at provincial/state levels and those living locally and impacted by development—straining to have their voices heard. We close with a wider discussion of energy democracy and justice, including fruitful avenues for future research.