Privileged Accounts and Industry-driven Discourse in the Debate Over Coal-fired Power

• In Event: 3451 - Governance and Climate Policy

Abstract

This paper explores the role of discursive power in the maintenance of environmental inequality through the case of the debate over coal-fired power around the 2016 US presidential election. Building on Freudenburg’s concept of “privileged accounts” and Hajer’s work on the discourse of environmental politics, I analyze data from qualitative interviews with federal and state-level energy policy actors conducted before and after the election (n=209). I identify the dominant narratives employed in support of the coal industry and analyze the linkages between specific pro-coal frames and the broader discursive strategies that maintain industrial environmental privilege. I find that industry-driven narratives within the discourse around coal-fired power preceding and following the 2016 election were loosely organized around a variety of anti-regulation themes, as well as around claims about coal as an irreplaceable and reliable source of electricity. Further, I find that the specific discourse coalitions among policy actors shifted across the pre- and post-election periods as members and supporters of the coal industry shifted their discursive strategies to adapt to new political and regulatory contexts.

Author

• Anya Mikael Galli Robertson, University of Maryland