Pollution is at apocalyptic levels because the financial health of monopolistic power companies improves when they sell more electricity. At least in cases where it is generated from fossil fuels, the outdated electric utility business model rewards practices that spew more CO2 into the atmosphere and thereby increases the industry's contribution to ecological destruction.

So much of the energy from fossil fuels does not even make it to consumers and is simply wasted at various stages of the process such as transmission line losses or 2/3 of the energy from coal burned in power plants being simply lost to waste heat. Yet utilities are not being forced to internalize the environmental costs that such rampant waste poses.

So, we are hit with a 1-2 punch of utilities being rewarded for customers consumption while not being financially penalized for emitting the pollution responsible for climate chaos. We are apparently locked into a system where energy utility profits are tied to their sales.

The rules of an outdated system tilt the playing field against energy conservation practices that decrease energy sales and thereby reduce the amount of greenhouse gas emissions injected into the atmosphere. That is backwards. And this does not have to be the case.

In this essay: 

1) THE RECEDING CENTRAL STATION ERA & THE EMERGING MODERN RENEWABLE ERA ARE DRIVEN BY THE DIFFERENT ECONOMIES OF SCALE

2) RENEWABLE POWER LOWERS BARRIERS TO ENTRY FOR COMPETITION

3) IF RENEWABLE POWER IS GETTING CHEAPER AND MORE COMPETITIVE THEN WHY DO SO MANY UTILITIES CLING TO THE OLD CENTRAL STATION POWER PLANT MODEL? 

4) THE UTILITIES’ NUMBER ONE MOTIVE IS MARKET SHARE

5) UTILITIES BUILDING RENEWABLE POWER IN A WAY THAT MIMICS THE CENTRAL STATION MODEL AS A WAY TO DEFEND MARKET SHARE

6) ARCHAIC RULES ENABLE UTILTIES TO EXTERNALIZE TRANSMISSION COSTS

7) SO, WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS MODEL? IT ENABLES MONOPOLY CONTROL AND PUTS UP BARRIERS TO COMPETITION

8) THE BENEFITS OF DISPERSED AND DISTRIBUTED POWER BEYOND ECONOMIC DEMOCRACY AND ACCESS

9) BEING “AGNOSTIC ON OWNERSHIP” PUTS PUBLIC APPROVAL OF RENEWABLES AT RISK

George Crocker, a founding board member of Community Power, has worked on energy democracy issues since the late 1970’s. In his newly published book titled About Power: How to Democratize Electricity Crocker has gratefully compiled the valuable stories of his over 4 decades of experiences and distills from them the useful lessons learned so that the rest of us can know. The book is essential reading so that we do not have to learn the lessons the hard way or reinvent the wheel from scratch.

The main driver of climate chaos that Community Power uniquely and specifically focuses on is the way how energy utilities have incentives that are “upside down and backwards.” We can’t afford to remain trapped in a regulatory and policy compact for energy utilities that is stuck in the last century. Crocker articulately exposes the obsolete monopoly power structures in our energy utility system have slowed much-needed progress on climate justice. Examples of these resulting perverse incentives include how utilities are effectively financially rewarded when they effectively emit more pollution and are motivated to tilt the playing field again renewable power that is outside of their market share. 

Crocker also lays out to build the renewable economy in a way that can bring down these barriers caused by these “upside down and backwards” incentives. To find out what it is, come join the Book Tour Event on October 17th (with more to follow or purchase the book by clicking here or on the image below. 

George Crocker joined Don Olson and his show on KFAI radio 90.3 FM Today, Oct. 10, at 1pm to talk About Power. A recording can be heard at this link. 

Thank you to Don, who was also part of the Northern Sun Alliance with George and named his show after it.

We were thrilled to have Gibson Tawago, a trailblazer for a sustainable business idea that is much needed for our world, visit us in the Twin Cities from Tanzania in August of 2024. He is the founder and CEO of WAGA, which provides a clean and affordable energy solution to low-income rural communities in Tanzania. Gibson met with both Community Power and our partner organization, Cooperative Energy Futures as part of a fellowship. Community Power matched the spirit of his work with decentralized renewable energy solutions while CEF's commitment to sustainability and affordability at the same time also provided a good match for the fellowship. For the previous few months, he was participating in the Mandela Washington Fellowship, to study about Leadership in Business at the University of Nevada in Reno. Gibson did not initially go to business school. But he came up with his idea organically of repurposing recycled laptop batteries into portable power packs equipped with solar panels first. Then he wanted to acquire advanced skills and knowledge in sustainable energy solutions, socially responsible entrepreneurship, financial management, and innovative business strategies.

(Gibson standing at the Cooperative Energy Futures community solar array in downtown Minneapolis

Click image above to watch a video of Gibson being interviewed at the site)

The story started around 2010 when mobile phones started to become more commonplace in sub-Saharan Africa. In the following few years, I-Phones that were much more user friendly for texting and internet replaced flip phones providing a connection with the world. The issue at that time was that charging the phones was a challenge. In numerous places in Tanzania, there is no electric grid infrastructure that we take for granted in almost all corners of the US. Gibson got his start when he used to bike for 32 miles to deliver multiple phones to a charging station that would charge 50 phones at the same time. The people had to limit the usage of their phones and often had to turn them off when not in use to conserve battery.  From this experience, Gibson was determined to develop a solution. He eventually started WAGA in 2022 that provides people in Tanzania access to solar power to both charge mobile phones more frequently as well as for indoor light during nighttime, which helps school children study for example without having to rely upon Kerosene lamps like before.. The product WAGA sells is a solar panel (as in just one solar panel, rather the multipanel solar arrays you’d more commonly see in the US) installed on a roof while the battery pack and the lights are inside a home.

At the July 11th meeting of the Climate and Infrastructure committee of the Minneapolis City Council, Jocelyn Bremmer from the City Attorney’s office gave the basic info that we already knew regarding the City’s Utility Franchise Renegotiations with Xcel and CenterPoint. Understandably, she was not able to reveal any new details of the  ongoing negotiations due to attorney client privilege. We did however get a few good takeaways on record from Ward 7 City Councilmember Katie Cashman, the C & I Committee Chair.

• Chair Cashman asked Bremmer whether utility franchise agreements are also a climate policy document for the city (allowing for revenue generation in support of our city's climate goals) and not just a right-of-way document. Jocelyn Bremmer did affirm “that is the city's position.” Historically, prior to 2013, utility franchise agreements were limited to right-of-way issues like the poles, wires and energy equipment built in city-owned public spaces.
• Chair Cashman concluded the discussion by stating “For me this is really a once in a decade opportunity for us to address the climate crisis and to work together with our utilities to address the climate crisis, aging infrastructure in our city, and prepare ourselves for being resilient to climate impacts like floods, droughts, heat waves and other natural disasters.”