Last week, we released two new podcasts. The first was with Barry Goldwater Jr., highlighting how competition and freedom are at stake in the utility v. customer battles over rooftop solar. Our second was with Mary Powell, CEO of Green Mountain Power, the Vermont company that’s rapidly becoming more than a traditional electric utility.
Also, if you haven’t seen it, check out the new communications strategy of the Edison Electric Institute, trade group of the monopoly investor-owned utilities. They’re trying to co-opt the word “community” and give rooftop solar a bad name. We’ll be fighting back.
Keep your energy local,
John
Green Mountain Power in Vermont has shifted it’s corporate culture towards social consciousness committing itself to sustainability, accountability, and transparency. CEO Mary Powell chatted with me on GMP’s status as the only utility benefit corporation.
The Bylines of Energy Democracy
Articles quoting us around the U.S. 
From Worst to First: Can Hawaii Eliminate Fossil Fuels? by Elizabeth Daigneau, Governing Magazine
Small utilities more likely to seek out renewables after FERC ruling by Karen Uhlenhuth, Midwest Energy News
Five years in, Boulder’s municipalization fight could be drawing to a close by Robert Walton, Utility Dive
Solar Power Design is Customizing for the City Rooftop by Josh Cohen, NextCity 
Competition and Freedom at Stake – Episode 37 of Local Energy Rules Podcast
To celebrate the 4th of July, we released our conversation with former U.S. Representative Barry Goldwater Jr. who fights monopoly utilities from limiting and devaluing solar energy.
You can help us build community power by reviewing our new Community Power map (in beta)!
What makes local energy action possible? Where is it happening? The Community Power map is intended to show how states can choose the rules to enable community power and where communities are taking charge. Have we missed some key rules, a city taking charge? Reply to this email or use the form on the Community Power map page to let us know!
Utilities Strip Consumers’ Control Over Energy Bills – Episode 36 of Local Energy Rules
Utilities have been assessing their solar customers with fixed fees in order to discourage the transition to renewable energy. But there are ways to fight back.
Local Utilities Have Lost Local Control
Municipal utilities and rural electric cooperatives are beholden to long-term, dirty energy wholesale contracts. This fundamentally undermines their ethic of community service and self-reliance.
Distributed Solar Capacity Quarterly Update (2016 Q1)
For the 6th time since the beginning of 2014, renewable energy has accounted for 2/3s or more of added power plant capacity.