”Jos se ei riitä, siitä riidellään”

Energiaturvallisuuden kieli ja kuvakieli turve-energian markkina-argumentteina

Abstract

Energy and related questions have become an issue of high politics both in international and domestic debates in the interplay of growing energy consumption, declining reserves and global warming. Especially in the European context, energy-related discussions have been coloured by the concern over the availability of energy in the aftermath of the Russian transit crises. In these debates, the notion of energy security has gained foothold as a key argument and a powerful rhetorical tool, and the fuzzy and elusive concept has been (ab)used to serve a wide range of political goals. This article focuses on the visual and verbal representations and articulations of energy security as a means of persuasion in Finnish energy-related debates through a case study on the energy company Vapo’s heavily criticized peat energy promotion campaign. The empirical analysis draws attention to the manners in which the pro-peat energy argument relies on an understanding of energy security constructed around a “logic of war” on all levels of analysis. Vapo’s campaign presents a world where energy determines all political choices and futures and the scarce resources will inevitably lead to escalating conflicts between “us” and the hostile “others”.