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Social equity is a core goal of water resources management and policy. Equity and sustainability are deeply interrelated and should be considered together to create fair, sustainable futures (Hicks et al., 2016;Leach et al., 2018). Yet, addressing equity within water resources management remains challenging. In approaches such as integrated water resources management, equity is typically vaguely defined, which hinders an understanding of equitable water practices at different social, spatial, and temporal scales (Wegerich, 2007;Wolf, 1999). In addition, an emphasis on efficient water use often overshadows analyses of how exclusion and marginalization based on the intersection of race, sex, class, and other identities lead to inequitable water outcomes (Allouche, 2020). Conventional water resources planning practices often lack

Recent scholarship indicates that populist rhetoric can profoundly shape commonsense understandings of global energy crises. While scholars often depict rural, working‐class communities as objects of right‐wing disinformation, posttruths, and alternative facts, how rural communities interpret or experience populist narratives is far from adequately understood. This research examines the recent coal industry recession in coal‐producing areas of Appalachian Kentucky, which contributed to ten thousand job losses since 2010. Amid the downturn, politicians and pro‐coal lobby groups riled the public by blaming the recession on an alleged “war on coal.” This article illustrates how neoliberal disinformation underpins war‐on‐coal narratives claiming that deregulating industry is the only way communities can save the industry and access economic well‐being. Drawing from qualitative interviews, participant observation, and discourse analysis, I explore how war‐on‐coal disinformation becomes a commonsense explanation for many dealing with coal industry recession. While findings suggest that the war on coal “makes sense” for many living in coal‐mining communities, this does not indicate an indeterminate embrace of the industry or pro‐coal rhetoric. Communities negotiate commonsense narratives against complicated relationships with the industry, the many dangers of mining, and the challenges coal poses for alternative economic futures.

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