In the late 1990s, when California's deregulation of the production and sale of electric power created massive energy shortages a group of environmental justice activists, largely high school students, blocked construction of a power plant in their working-class Mexican and Central American neighborhoods. Power Politics is a study of this grassroots campaign and the racial and class dynamics that shape Americans' grasp of labor and environmental issues.

In the late 1990s, when California's deregulation of the production and sale of electric power created massive energy shortages a group of environmental justice activists, largely high school students, blocked construction of a power plant in their working-class Mexican and Central American neighborhoods. Power Politics is a study of this grassroots campaign and the racial and class dynamics that shape Americans' grasp of labor and environmental issues.