"Utility Companies Fight Back: As Communities Seek Publicly Owned Electricity, Dark Money and Front Groups Emerge. Across the United States, a growing movement is underway as cities and towns push to take control of their electricity grids, citing rising bills, frequent outages, and a lack of investment in clean energy. But a shadowy network of private utility-backed groups is reportedly working to undermine this effort, using tactics that include deploying front groups and funneling dark money to sway local decisions. As communities from Michigan to California and Florida consider joining the nearly 2,000 public power companies already operating in the US, questions are being raised about the influence of private utilities and their willingness to use underhanded tactics to maintain control."
As communities push for publicly owned electricity, private utilities may be deploying dark money and local front groups to stop themThe utility industry is quietly dispatching a network of front groups to thwart the growing push for public power across the US – a push that comes amid mounting frustration over sky-high utility bills, electric outages, a slow transition to clean energy and private utilities’ soaring profits.Communities from Ann Arbor, Michigan to San Diego, California and St Petersburg, Florida are exploring municipalizing their grids to join the country’s approximately 2,000 public power companies. Continue reading...
