Jeremy Kalin discusses the evolution of federal tax incentives for renewable energy and how the direct pay provision of the Inflation Reduction Act will deliver more financial benefits to cities, counties, and nonprofits. | Show page available: https://ilsr.org/solar-incentives-direct-pay-ler213/ | Listen to all of our Local Energy Rules podcast episodes at our site: https://ilsr.org/local-energy-rules-podcast-homepage | Don't forget to subscribe, share with your friends, leave a recommendation on our podcast feeds, and join the conversation online using the #LocalEnergyRules hashtag ..read more

With advanced technology, utility regulation has become a juggling act. How do you accurately weigh the risks of innovation? Can utilities be sincere advocates for their customers? For this episode of the Local Energy Rules Podcast, host John Farrell is joined by Ted Thomas of Energize Strategies and former chair of the Arkansas Public Service Commission. They discuss access, fairness, cost shifts, utility monopolies, and innovation in the electricity sector. Listen to the full episode and explore more resources below — including a transcript and summary of the conversation. https://ilsr.org/a ..read more

While many cities profess an interest in advancing clean energy, states often hold the keys to the policy and regulatory opportunities. Activists from Brookline, Mass., the first cold-climate city to ban expansion of the methane gas network to new homes and businesses, aim to give cities the upper hand. For this episode of the Local Energy Rules Podcast, host John Farrell is joined by Jesse Gray and David Mendels, co-founders of Zero Carbon Massachusetts. They discuss the six provisions in the Municipal Climate Empowerment Plan, state legislation that would enable Massachusetts communities to ..read more

“Establishing public power is the beginning of a process, and not an end,” says SMUD Board Candidate Derek Cressman. For this episode of the Local Energy Rules Podcast, customers of four publicly-owned utilities explain some limitations of the public power model and how they are organizing to increase accountability. The utilities included in their stories are Sacramento Municipal Utility District, Tennessee Valley Authority, Salt River Project, and Omaha Public Power District. This is part five of a special series: The Promise and Peril of Publicly-Owned Power. Listen to the full episode and ..read more

Cities can take over when their private utility’s service is poor, but municipalization isn’t all or nothing. For this episode of the Local Energy Rules Podcast, host John Farrell describes three municipalization attempts: Boulder, Colo., Minneapolis, and Decorah, Iowa. Each city failed to form its own utility, but found silver linings in trying. This is part four of a special series: The Promise and Peril of Publicly-Owned Power. Listen to the full episode and explore more resources below — including a transcript and summary of the conversation. https://ilsr.org/articles/public-power-series-4 ..read more

For this episode of the Local Energy Rules Podcast, host John Farrell is joined by Randy Knight, City Manager of Winter Park, Fla., and Ursula Schryver, Vice President of Strategic Member Engagement and Education at the American Public Power Association. Schryver describes the benefits of consumer-owned utility service and Knight reports on the progress that municipalization brought to Winter Park. In addition to segments of these two new interviews, archived clips from leaders in Rochester, Minn., Georgetown, Texas, and Burlington, Vt. highlight the many benefits of public power. This is part ..read more

Is municipalization — the public takeover of a privately-owned utility — the best way for cities to reach their ambitious clean energy targets? For this episode of the Local Energy Rules Podcast, Building Local Power co-hosts Luke Gannon and Reggie Rucker ask John Farrell about an upcoming Local Energy Rules podcast series, “The Promise and Peril of Publicly-Owned Power.” The series (launching August 17th) explores how cities take over their electric utility, what they have to gain from municipalization, and the actual results of several municipalization attempts. This episode was originally p ..read more

Monopoly energy utilities have accrued vast service territories and extraordinary financial power — which they have used to purchase political power. At this point, state regulatory and legislative bodies can only do so much to rein them in. For this episode of the Local Energy Rules Podcast, host John Farrell speaks with Howard Crystal and Liz Veazey. Crystal, Legal Director of the Energy Justice Program at the Center for Biological Diversity, and Veazey, Policy and Rural Energy Director at Solar United Neighbors, were two cosigners on a recent petition to the Federal Trade Commission. The In ..read more

Utilities have more than a century of experience in maintaining their monopolies. Thanks to organizers at the Energy Democracy Project, the people now have a playbook that exposes utility tactics and shares proven strategies to advance energy justice. For this episode of the Local Energy Rules Podcast, host John Farrell speaks with Yesenia Rivera, Director of Energy Equity and Inclusion at Solar United Neighbors and member of the Energy Democracy Project. Rivera was also a project anchor for the People’s Utility Justice Playbook and its companion, the People’s History of Utilities. Farrell and ..read more

To protect competitive markets, we must quarantine regulated monopolies. For this episode of the Local Energy Rules Podcast, host John Farrell is joined by Lynne Kiesling, Director of the Institute for Regulatory Law & Economics at Northwestern University and Research professor at the University of Colorado Denver. Kiesling explains why allowing incumbent monopolies into new markets is too big of a risk for innovation and the public interest, particularly in the context of Xcel Energy’s major electric vehicle charging proposal. Listen to the full episode and explore more resources below ..read more