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"How to Kill a Powerline," with Maddy Kroot, PhD Candidate, Clark University

Maddy Kroot, Dartmouth Class of 2019 and current PhD candidate at Clark University gives a talk titled "How to Kill a Powerline: Utility-on-Utility Violence and Electricity Capital in Energy Infrastructure Disputes" for the Irving Institute's New Energy webinar series. About the Talk The concept of just energy transitions pushes us to pursue rapid decarbonization while also centering issues of justice, equity, and democratic participation in energy decision-making. However, in practice, these mandates often appear at odds, with participatory practices widely seen as endangering fast policies for decarbonization through discourses of climate NIMBYism, or the "Not-In-My-Backyard" movement. This talk explores a different driver in project delays and cancellations: "utility-on-utility violence." Drawing on doctoral work on two controversial high-voltage transmission lines in northern New England, the talk explores how incumbent electricity capital effectively weaponizes the mandate for public participation in infrastructure permitting to block new energy sources from entering the grid and jeopardizing the profitability of existing assets. Rather than "astroturf" opposition, incumbents amplify the resources of pre-existing public opposition stemming from poor project design and community outreach, assisting small rural communities in slowing or cancelling billion-dollar projects. In turn, this utility-on-utility violence provides cover for capital, funneling blame for decarbonization delays towards uncooperative publics rather than utility interference in the regional electricity market. About the Presenter Maddy Kroot is a PhD candidate in Clark University's Graduate School of Geography. Her dissertation project looks at community opposition to new high-voltage transmission lines in northern New England, focusing on the Northern Pass project in New Hampshire and the New England Clean Energy Connect project in western Maine. These transmission lines are intended to increase imports of hydroelectricity from Hydro-Quebec to meet decarbonization targets in Massachusetts. Using spatial justice as a lens, she considers how the dual mandates of decarbonization and energy democratization lead to "green-on-green" conflict in energy governance when the regional and planetary benefits of grid decarbonization and reduced carbon emissions come into friction with localized impacts to landscape conservation, rural livelihoods, and sense of place. Maddy is a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow and a Jack Kent Cooke Foundation Graduate Scholar, and holds a B.A. in Geography and Linguistics from Dartmouth College.