A new framework for environmental education about energy transition: investment and the energy regulatory and industrial complex

Modern societies depend upon fossil fuel–based energy systems for energy services, but, despite huge benefits, many negative environmental consequences have resulted from fossil fuels. The most important is climate change, caused by greenhouse gases emitted from production and use of fossil fuels. Over the past 50 years, environmental education has increasingly embraced the need for curriculum on climate change, but these curricular efforts have not delved deeply enough into building student knowledge and analytical skills about energy systems and the imperative transition away from fossil fuels. Based on political–ecological ideas, we propose a new framework for building environmental curriculum about energy and energy transitions: the Energy Regulatory and Industrial Complex (ERIC) with an embedded Energy Investment Cycle (EIC), a systemic perspective to help students focus on the key role of decision-making about energy investments. ERIC and EIC also bolster recognition of the components of energy systems, how they relate to each other, and the challenges of transforming an energy system. Environmental education involves a large variety of disciplinary and interdisciplinary perspectives among instructors serving students at many levels and from different preparations. Accordingly, we do not attempt to provide exact instructions on how to use ERIC and EIC. Instead, our intention is to help faculty develop curricula for different disciplinary and interdisciplinary courses and degree programs. To that end, we conclude with brief illustrations of possible uses of ERIC and EIC. We argue that our proposed framework will stimulate better understanding of energy-environmental interactions and thereby promote constructive discussions about energy transitions away from fossil fuels.