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Abstract

This thesis explores the forms of violence produced by California’s energy system and how organizers are challenging and reimagining electric utilities. Specifically, I explore 1) how PG&E and state regulators advance a notion of “public safety” that harms communities unevenly across axes of race, ability, and class; and 2) how community resilience hubs powered by microgrids can support Reclaim Our Power’s framework of utility justice. This project is based on qualitative analysis of institutional documents and resistance by organizers, as well as semi-structured interviews conducted with organizers and professionals working to advance utility justice. I argue that for an imagined “public safety,” PG&E’s shutoffs force certain individuals to take on real harm, and transfer risk to the public more broadly in the form of inoperable traffic signals and restricted telecommunications. Community resilience hubs led by frontline organizers can be a means of putting utility justice into practice.

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