{"id":1463640,"date":"2024-01-25T09:45:00","date_gmt":"2024-01-25T09:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/grist.org\/?p=628230"},"modified":"2024-01-25T09:45:00","modified_gmt":"2024-01-25T09:45:00","slug":"meet-the-communities-trying-to-take-over-their-local-electric-utility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2024\/01\/25\/meet-the-communities-trying-to-take-over-their-local-electric-utility\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet the communities trying to take over their local electric utility"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Climate activists have set their sights on a new target in the fight to slow global warming: utilities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Around a dozen communities<\/a> across the country have launched campaigns to get rid of their investor-owned electric utilities \u2014 the for-profit companies that distribute electricity to three-quarters<\/a> of U.S. households \u2014 and replace them with publicly owned ones. Calling their goal \u201cpublic power,\u201d advocates argue that existing utilities have saddled customers with high rates and frequent outages, while lobbying to delay rooftop solar<\/a> and other climate policies<\/a>. Advocates say local ownership of the power grid would lead to lower electric bills, a quicker transition to renewables, and greater accountability to customers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In November, the movement for public power faced its biggest test yet in Maine<\/a>. Residents voted on a referendum that would have replaced Maine\u2019s two investor-owned utilities with a statewide public power company. Faced with an existential threat, the legacy utilities launched a $39 million advertising campaign to counter the initiative. The measure ultimately failed<\/a>, with roughly 70 percent of voters opposed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Yet despite the defeat in Maine, public power supporters in California, New York, and Michigan told Grist that they\u2019re just getting started. Their campaigns are at different stages \u2014 some of them are working to get a measure like Maine\u2019s on the ballot, while others are just trying to convince local officials to study the feasibility of public power. Most of them face opposition from legacy power utilities. But all of them are optimistic about the long-term prospects of publicly owned utilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cPublic power is a necessarily ambitious and visionary effort,\u201d said Mohini Sharma, organizing director of Metro Justice, a grassroots organization advocating for public power in Rochester, New York. \u201cAnd when you’re going up against multibillion-dollar corporations, there are going to be some losses along the way.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Some advocates see a silver lining in the election outcome in Maine. In the state\u2019s largest city, Portland, the vote won by a margin of 163 votes<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Campaigners in San Diego say the results give them hope for what they can accomplish in a smaller, denser population as opposed to an entire state. \u201cIt pointed to the fact that if you can organize in a concentrated geographic area like a city, and pour effort and resources into it, even in Maine the result there was favorable,\u201d said Bill Powers, chair of the advocacy group Power San Diego. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This year\u2019s push for public power could find its next major foothold in San Diego. In early December, Power San Diego launched a signature-gathering campaign to get a vote for a new, locally owned electricity distribution utility on this year\u2019s ballot<\/a>. If the group successfully certifies 80,000 signatures by July, equal to about 10 percent of registered voters in San Diego, residents of California\u2019s second-largest city could decide in November whether to oust their current investor-owned utility, San Diego Gas & Electric, for a municipal alternative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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