The Great Power Shift: Decentralization, Reparations, and the Fight for Energy Justice

By Robert Freling

When Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico in 2017, it didn’t just tear roofs off homes and flood city streets. It wiped out the island’s centralized electrical grid, plunging nearly the entire population into darkness. For weeks—months in some places—hospitals operated by flashlight, water pumps went dry, and families struggled to stay alive without refrigeration, air conditioning, or communication.

Similarly, in 2021, a winter storm in Texas brought one of the world’s wealthiest energy producing states to its knees. Frozen gas pipelines, overwhelmed infrastructure, and poor planning left millions without heat or power during sub-freezing temperatures.

These were not failures of nature. They were failures of system design.

The question isn’t how to make these systems stronger. It’s whether we should be building entirely different ones—and as we build, how we might pay what’s due to those historically left behind.

Read more in Resilience.