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Matt Huber

Class Divides in the Politics of Building

Class Divides in the Politics of Building

The turn to a “politics of building” is a welcome change in environmental thinking, but the green Left is still at odds in important ways with the labor movement, which better understands what is needed for deep decarbonization and, most importantly, has the power to help bring it about.

The Utility of Utilities

The Utility of Utilities

Climate activists are no fans of electric utilities. But the market-based alternatives that they often prefer—for rolling out renewable technologies faster than utilities—will not deliver infrastructural change at the scale we need.

Big Public Power from the River

Big Public Power from the River

The Tennessee Valley Authority was about more than electrification. It was a complex project of building state and public planning capacity geared toward rapid ecological restoration of the entire region. For impoverished farmers, it was nothing short of life changing.

Big Public Power from the Atom

Big Public Power from the Atom

Big public power in the last century applied the elemental potential of water toward social ends. The big public power of tomorrow should revolve around the elemental potential of the atom.

Patrolling Class Theory

Patrolling Class Theory

A new crop of academic critics treat working-class differentiation as a theoretical conclusion rather than as a point of departure. This is a profoundly cynical position that obscures the true sources of defeat: working-class atomization and resignation.