David McDermott Hughes is professor of Anthropology at Rutgers University. The transition away from fossil fuels is not primarily an engineering problem. One does not simply install solar and wind farms and collect profits as corporations are doing now – and provoking local resistance significant enough to slow or stop the energy transition altogether. We will discuss alternatives that are both progressive and necessary, including faster ways to retire oil, gas, and the means of achieving public ownership of wind and solar projects. Professor Hughes’ writings and advocacy work includes the areas of race and nature, energy democracy, fossil fuels, and colonialism and conservation. He has published four books, the most recent being Who Owns the Wind? Climate Crisis and the Hope of Renewable Energy (Verso Press, 2021)