ABSTRACT
This chapter challenges the prevailing debt-centric narrative of the Greek crisis by combining historical and ethnographic data with an energy-conscious analysis that draws on network theory. I contend that transnational flows of debt/credit and flows of fossil fuels are crucially related, and argue that Greece’s historic oil dependency and the volatility of corporate-mediated fuel and petro-capital flows combine to undermine Greece’s sovereignty and exacerbate its debt. Deployment of scale-making strategies by powerful actors, including creditors in the EU and local elites, are central to these disparities. The chapter examines the 2011–2014 energy crisis that left hundreds of thousands of Greeks in energy poverty due to inability to pay utility bills, and discusses the contributions of fuel smuggling and tax evasion by shippers to the disparities. The chapter also examines new forms of resistance to energy kleptocracy led by Den Plirono (the “I Don’t Pay” movement).
