The Community Power Score assigns points to each state based on its policy environment for supporting local energy action. It includes points for all of the state policies in the map above. The 2019 Community Power Scorecard scoring methodology is … Read More
In our latest Local Energy Rules podcast, John Farrell joins leaders from Farmers Electric Cooperative in Iowa and Kit Carson Electric Cooperative in New Mexico, to discuss how rural areas can source their power locally and renewably. Rural electric co-op leaders Warren McKenna and Luis Reyes share from experience how local renewable energy provides win-wins for co-ops, member-owners, and their local economy.… Read More
This 30-minute video is a companion guide to the NAACP’s Just Energy Toolkit. It begins with an interview on the site of a community solar project in north Minneapolis, a project that in many ways epitomizes energy democracy.… Read More
Shiloh Temple, a church two miles from downtown Minneapolis, serves more than just the spiritual needs of the community. After a recent update to its roof, this church in North Minneapolis now serves some of the community’s energy needs, as well.
In May, John Farrell visited the rooftop solar garden and interviewed Timothy DenHerder-Thomas, general manager of Cooperative Energy Futures, the cooperatively-owned company that installed the panels. The two discussed final stages of the project, the justice perspective that makes it unique, and other projects Cooperative Energy Futures has in the queue.… Read More
Residents of Athens, Ohio, recently passed a carbon fee ballot initiative that will add 0.2 cents per kilowatt hour to electricity costs. On this episode of Local Energy Rules, Director of the Energy Democracy Initiative John Farrell speaks with UpGrade Ohio’s information and outreach director Mathew Roberts about this first-of-its-kind carbon fee and how a community-run energy utility made it possible.… Read More
Conventional wisdom suggests that concerns about social and environmental impacts, though well-intended, can distract from a public company’s legal obligation to reward shareholders. But if this conventional wisdom were true, Vermont’s Green Mountain Power ought to be lagging behind its investor-owned electric utility peers. Instead, this certified B Corp is promoting people, planet, and profit, and jumping ahead of its utility industry peers. … Read More
