In the past five years, a new U.S. renewable energy policy has quietly grown more popular, enabling enough solar power (1.21 gigawatts!) to send Michael J. Fox “Back to the Future.” CLEAN programs – Clean Local Energy Accessible Now – have been adopted in 14 states and can significantly increase the deployment of local solar power, says a new report from the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR).… Read More
Since 2005, Walmart has been making splashy announcements and issuing slick reports to highlight its environmental and social responsibility efforts. In this new brief, Food & Water Watch and ILSR contend that the world’s largest retailer fails to live up to its promises and continues to ignore the fundamental problems with its business model that harm the environment, undermine healthy food choices, and exacerbate poverty.… Read More
Within ten years, 100 million Americans in the nation’s largest cities will be able to get cheaper electricity from rooftop solar than their utility provides. That’s just the opening salvo from a new report from the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. “Rooftop Revolution: Changing Everything with Cost-Effective Solar,” not only illustrates the enormous, emerging potential for local solar power, but also describes how the rules of the electricity system must change now for the electricity system to be ready for the decade’s energy democracy opportunity.… Read More
In this new report, the Institute for Local Self-Reliance documents how Walmart’s heavily promoted sustainability initiatives are falling short. “Walmart’s sustainability campaign has done more to improve the company’s image than to help the environment,” said Stacy Mitchell, the report’s author and a senior researcher at ILSR. … Read More
An annual survey has found that independent businesses had strong sales growth over the holidays and appear to be benefitting from growing public interest in supporting locally owned retail stores, banks, restaurants, and other enterprises.… Read More
The low risk and transparency of CLEAN Contract Programs can provide states with more solar at a lower cost than solar renewable energy certificate (SREC) programs, says a new report released last week. Produced by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR), CLEAN v. SREC: Finding the More Cost-Effective Solar Policy finds that an otherwise identical solar … Read More
Burlington Telecom, a publicly owned broadband network in Vermont, transitioned from a hopeful star of the community broadband movement to the first example used by those opposed to government investing in the infrastructure of the 21st century. … Read More
“Thirty years ago renewable energy was a novelty,” says John Farrell, author of the new report, Democratizing the Electricity System: A Vision for the 21st Century Electric Grid. “Twenty years ago it was little more than a cottage industry. Today the $100 billion renewable energy industry threatens to overturn the bigger-is-better foundation of the existing, 20th century electricity system.”
In March, ILSR testified against proposed legislation in Maryland to qualify waste incinerators as a Tier 1 renewable source of energy.… Read More
