As consumers, we all want choice: the freedom to decide our own best interests and where our dollars go. In the energy sector, however, there are not always options to choose from. Community Choice Aggregation (CCA) frees communities to collectively choose their energy supplier. In Ohio, one city is stretching its freedom to choose even further.

Residents of Athens, Ohio, just passed a carbon fee ballot initiative that will add 0.2 cents per kilowatt hour to electricity costs for CCA members. This first-of-its-kind carbon fee proposal, drafted by the non-profit UpGrade Ohio, will support installation of solar on public buildings and provide more resources for public investment.

In 2017, the city of Athens published the Athens Sustainability Action Plan. It includes concrete and immediate goals for sustainability, such as reducing residential/municipal energy use 20% by the year 2020. Supporters believe the carbon fee will contribute to this goal, as well as driving investment in renewables.

On this episode of Local Energy Rules, Director of the Energy Democracy Initiative John Farrell speaks with UpGrade Ohio’s information and outreach director Mathew Roberts. As part of the group that designed the carbon fee initiative, Roberts was eager to talk about this and other community-led energy initiatives in Athens.

https://ilsr.org/articles/ohio-community-choice-ler-episode-56/

Listen to all of our Local Energy Rules podcast episodes at our site: https://ilsr.org/local-energy-rules-podcast-homepage

If residents of a city believe that strengthening local control, promoting the local economy, and investing in renewable energy are important, what can they do to make these things happen? One city in Ohio, already having a Community Choice Aggregation (CCA) system in place, recently passed a carbon fee ballot initiative that will add 0.2 cents per kilowatt hour to electricity costs for CCA members. In the latest episode of Local Energy Rules, Director of the Energy Democracy Initiative John Farrell speaks with UpGrade Ohio’s information and outreach director Mathew Roberts. As part of the group that designed the carbon fee initiative, Roberts was eager to talk about this and other community-led energy initiatives in Athens.

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!

In 2013, we hosted an inaugural conversation with Anya Schoolman about her neighborhood solar project then called the Mount Pleasant Solar Cooperative, and the early stages of her journey fighting for local climate solutions and distributed solar.

Back then, the cooperative Schoolman helped organize was already known nationwide for helping dozens of homeowners work together to go solar in their Washington, D.C., neighborhood by establishing group or bulk purchasing programs, for example, while simultaneously organizing these residents to fight for better solar policies.

https://ilsr.org/articles/from-the-archive-anya-schoolman-executive-director-of-solar-united-neighbors-episode-55-of-local-energy-rules-podcast/

Show page available: http://www.ilsr.org/from-the-archive-anya-schoolman-executive-director-of-solar-united-neighbors-episode-55-of-local-energy-rules-podcast |

How did one group of neighbors from Washington, D.C., band together to advance clean energy locally and then build a larger movement replicating their model elsewhere? In the latest episode from the Local Energy Rules podcast archive, John Farrell, Director of ILSR’s Energy Democracy Initiative, revisits a 2013 interview with Anya Schoolman, the major force behind a unique, grassroots solar cooperative model that has since grown into Solar United Neighbors, now a national leader in distributed, cooperative solar. The two discuss effective ways to invest in solar energy and advocate for local policies to support distributed energy from the ground up—strategies as relevant in 2013 as they are today. |

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!

In 30 states, communities and individuals have no choice for their electricity provider. Instead, states have granted monopolies to electric companies in exchange for sometimes inadequate oversight of public regulatory commissions. As a final accountability check, however, cities have often retained the power to take over the utility and run it as a public service. Andy Johnson and Joel Zook with Decorah Power, an effort in the small town of Decorah, Iowa to put the public back in public utility.

https://ilsr.org/articles/ballot-initiative-shapes-iowa-towns-fight-for-local-power-episode-54-of-local-energy-rules-podcast/

Show page available: http://www.ilsr.org/ballot-initiative-shapes-iowa-towns-fight-for-local-power-episode-54-of-local-energy-rules-podcast.

What can a town do to advance clean energy locally if it is fed up with its incumbent, investor-owned monopoly utility? John Farrell, Director of the Energy Democracy Initiative at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, interviews Andy Johnson and Joel Zook, community members and local energy leaders from Decorah Power, about an important, upcoming ballot initiative in Decorah, Iowa, and the culmination of an organized, grassroots effort by residents to take back local control of their electric utility and energy future.

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!

For this episode of Local Energy Rules, we head to the archive, replaying our interview with South Miami mayor Philip Stoddard. In this conversation from April 2018, we discussed South Miami’s fight for renewable energy against a resistant monopoly utility and Stoddard’s own drive to lead by example with solar.

Since the episode aired, Mayor Stoddard made the news by doing exactly as he set out to do years ago: taking himself off the grid and proving that solar works in Florida. Using his rooftop solar, electric car, and two Tesla Powerwall batteries, Stoddard went off the grid for a week in March of 2019. Stoddard is walking the walk, not only for the economic benefits of energy independence, but also for the security it provides during hurricane season.

https://ilsr.org/articles/south-miami-a-bright-spot-for-solar-in-sunshine-state-episode-53-of-local-energy-rules-podcast/

Show page available: https://ilsr.org/south-miami-a-bright-spot-for-solar-in-sunshine-state-episode-53-of-local-energy-rules-podcast

What can a small city do to advance clean energy locally, if its state commissioners and legislators are not willing to take their jobs regulating monopoly electric utilities seriously? In the latest podcast from Local Energy Rules, John Farrell, Director of the Energy Democracy Initiative at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, interviews Philip Stoddard, a pioneering, fourth-term mayor of South Miami, Florida, who has been sticking up to the state’s incumbent utility, in order to make the state live up to its billing as the Sunshine State.

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 #EnergyRules hashtag!

More than 50 U.S. cities have made commitments to reach 100 percent renewable electricity, many inspired by Sierra Club’s Ready for 100 campaign and the cost-effectiveness of solar and wind power. But how do communities build the political will to adopt such goals, and how do they plan to meet them?

In San Diego, the answer to both is the exercise of local authority. In particular, the city is taking advantage of the state’s community choice energy law to take over selecting where the city’s residents and businesses get their electricity.

Nicole Capretz is the executive director of the Climate Action Campaign and former staffer to the San Diego mayor during the creation of the city’s climate action plan. Capretz recently spoke with ILSR’s director of Energy Democracy, John Farrell, about the city’s adoption of a 100% renewable electricity goal, and the struggle against the incumbent electric utility company for control of the journey toward that goal.

https://ilsr.org/articles/getting-san-diego-ready-for-100-renewable-energy-episode-52-of-local-energy-rules-podcast/

More than 50 U.S. Cities have made commitments to reach 100 percent renewable electricity, but how do communities build the political will to adopt such goals, and how do they plan to meet them? John Farrell interviews Nicole Capretz of the Climate Action Campaign to learn how San Diego's community choice program will move them toward 100 percent renewable electricity.

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