Engaging with energy justice through mock energy board hearings

Undergraduate students are great at finding problems with proposed energy projects. What happens when they are pushed to move from critiquing to advocating, deliberating and deciding – as though their own futures depended on it? For nine years, I have used mock energy board hearings to help students move from the comfortable critic’s chair to the hot seat of defending a position under the scrutiny of their peers. Guided by an energy justice framework, third-year students debate three real-life energy proposals, cycling through three roles: 1) stakeholders arguing for or against the project; 2) panelists deciding whether to approve or reject the project; and 3) journalists communicating the issue. Student feedback and instructor observations show that the activity helps students tackle key challenges in energy geographies: appreciating system complexity, maintaining a sense of agency, and engaging with emotions. Ongoing challenges include helping students think beyond whether it is acceptable to produce energy in particular ways by reflecting on deeper questions about what the assumption of ever-growing energy “needs” may be used to justify.