John Farrell

Nov 22, 2024 | ilsr.org | John Farrell |Stacy Mitchell |Jess Del Fiacco |Luke Gannon

Over the last 50 years, too many of the decisions coming out of Washington have stripped everyday people of their collective agency and power. These choices have gutted local economies and turned self-conscious and self-directing communities into places controlled by far-off boardrooms.

May 30, 2024 | ilsr.org | John Farrell

ILSR’s new report, Upcharge: Hidden Costs of Electric Utility Monopoly Power, is a deep dive into the problems associated with the 100-year-old model granting private companies exclusive power over the public resource of electricity – and a call for structural reforms to restore competition and equilibrium to the sector.

May 8, 2024 | ilsr.org | John Farrell

Communities can do a lot to advance energy democracy, but some tools must be granted by state policy. State legislators create the rules for building local power — supporting locally owned distributed generation, empowering communities to pursue their own goals, and planning for an equitable transition to clean energy. States can also fight corporate control and hold utilities accountable, protecting ratepayers from inflated costs and other abuses of monopoly power.

Apr 25, 2024 | ilsr.org | John Farrell

Investor-owned utilities exercise their monopoly power in a vicious circle of maximizing profits at the expense of their customers, using that money to gain political power, and then using that power to defend their monopoly and make even more money. What is an investor-owned utility (IOU)? An investor-owned electric utility is a for-profit company, owned by shareholders, that delivers electricity to customers.

Apr 18, 2024 | ilsr.org | John Farrell

The climate advocacy and clean energy community are far too focused on new power lines, whereas we have faster, cheaper, and more efficient tools to meet many of our collective goals. In a recent Twitter thread, I shared an inflammatory meme to suggest we don’t need new high-voltage transmission lines. I’d describe my position as this: I’m a grid capacity believer, but a transmission skeptic. Transmission lines are slow and expensive to build.