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The meaning and connotations of the word “justice” as used in environmental justice and much climate justice literature were formed in the US civil rights movement. Its basic narrative is of a brutally oppressed people who took the initiative, defined their own needs, demanded freedom, co-opted the help of higher powers, and plagued their oppressors bravely and increasingly disruptively until the oppressors gave in. These connotations and meaning tend to cling to the word “justice” when used in social-political reform movements of many kinds. Interestingly, today's energy justice literature shows a much wider spectrum of meaning of “justice”. Much of this literature pursues an intellectual quest for the meaning of justice as an abstract imperative, which scholars investigate philosophically and apply to energy-related projects and transitions, to inform policymakers and others of the rights and wrongs of these, albeit …