In the groundbreaking report Upcharge: Hidden Costs of Electric Utility Monopoly Power, John Farrell exposes the severe environmental, financial, and economic costs imposed by monopoly utilities. John joins Building Local Power to discuss how these utilities perpetuate a monopoly model that is damaging our health, environment, and economy. He uncovers the corruptive forces of monopoly utilities, their far-reaching consequences, and proposes actionable solutions. During the interview, John reflects on what’s changed since he and David Pomerantz discussed the dark side of the electricity business in the 2019 Building Local Power episode we replay after the interview. He shares what keeps him hopeful and why he believes we will continue making progress toward a distributed and democratic energy system.