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Energy justice

Redlining and power plant siting

Nature Energy volume 8, pages 11–12 (2023)Cite this article

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Historically redlined communities have been disproportionately burdened by multiple environmental and social stressors, related to lower housing values and inequitable access to investments and other resources. New research examines whether redlining was associated with the siting of fossil fuel power plants and how that association changed over time.

The energy infrastructure placed in and around various neighbourhoods has contributed to these disparities, both because of direct effects on exposures like air pollution and broader influences on surrounding land use patterns. However, there has been only modest attention toward linkages between redlining and energy infrastructure, primarily considering the siting of oil and gas wells7. More generally, it can be difficult to ascertain whether the redlining process itself led to adverse outcomes, or whether other discriminatory practices that predated or followed that process were at fault.

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  1. Boston University School of Public Health, Department of Environmental Health, Boston, MA, USA

    Jonathan I. Levy

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  1. Jonathan I. Levy
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Correspondence to Jonathan I. Levy.

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Levy, J.I. Redlining and power plant siting. Nat Energy 8, 11–12 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-022-01173-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-022-01173-9

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