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The Coal‐Corn Divide: Colliding Treadmills in Rural Community Energy Development
Author(s) -
Gasteyer Stephen,
Carrera Jennifer
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
rural sociology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.083
H-Index - 65
eISSN - 1549-0831
pISSN - 0036-0112
DOI - 10.1111/ruso.12013
Subject(s) - boom , coal , fossil fuel , natural resource economics , production (economics) , economics , agricultural economics , economy , geography , environmental science , engineering , environmental engineering , archaeology , waste management , macroeconomics
The emergence of concerns about “peak oil,” the fallout from the I raq War in terms of renewed calls for “energy security,” and the development of new technology to gain access to fossil fuels and gas long off‐limits because of economic and environmental concerns has led to a boom of multiple kinds of energy development in and around rural communities in the U nited S tates. This article uses the lens of treadmill‐of‐production and growth‐machine literature to understand these developments in south central Illinois, an area with rich farmland and a history of underground coal extraction. While this analysis finds the expected support from community elites for renewed coal extraction, despite health and environmental risks, we find that the farm community, concerned about damage to land critical for producing corn and beans, profitable at historical levels in part because of the biofuel boom, formed a strong opposition movement. In short, we find evidence of colliding treadmills of energy production. The findings have implications for the analysis of rural energy production in the U nited S tates and beyond.