In this episode of the Building Local Power podcast, our guest is Justin Dahlheimer, president of a community bank in west-central Minnesota. Justin and our hosts discuss the benefits of community banking, and how banks lend differently when they have a vested stake in their community.… Read More
With this bill’s passage, the Tennessee General Assembly will likely not pass any other broadband legislation during this session. The Broadband Accessibility Act won’t improve Tennessee’s rating as 29th in Internet connectivity, but it will do a great job of lining AT&T’s pockets. As we’ve tracked throughout the session, there are a number of bills worth supporting that would actually increase connectivity and allow municipalities to take part in their own broadband future.… Read More
In this commentary published in the Boulder Daily Camera, Energy Democracy initiative director John Farrell wrote that, “Municipalization comes with many challenges, but I have a few words of advice for Boulder’s city leaders about their utility’s latest offer.”… Read More
Tennessee has long been a thorn in the side of our broadband policy research team, thanks in large part to a pair of realities. 1) Chattanooga, Tenn. has some of the best connectivity in the world thanks to its municipal broadband network and 2) there’s a restrictive state law that disables municipalities from investing in their connectivity. Motherboard Vice‘s Jason Koebler discussed this trend and recent legislative action with Christopher Mitchell.… Read More
Recently released research from Pew delves into a question of interest to those following our broadband research team, what do Americans think about municipally owned Internet access and investments in better Internet connectivity? In his story for the Washington Post, Brian Fung reached out to our broadband expert Christopher Mitchell for his expertise.… Read More
In a great article for Waste Dive, reporter Cole Rosengren features our recently released report on the possibilities that the city of Baltimore has in increasing its proportions of recycling and increasing economic development from the policy change.… Read More
Karlee Weinmann, Research Associate for the Energy Democracy initiative at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, delivered a presentation in New Orleans, Louisiana on March 28th, 2017 at an event called Decarbonizing the Electric Grid. In her presentation she discussed the untapped potential for rural electric cooperatives to democratically engage with their member-owners, commit heavily to renewable energy, and lift up their stories in the energy industry.… Read More
Welcome to episode fifteen of the Building Local Power podcast. In this episode, Christopher Mitchell, the director of ILSR’s Community Broadband Networks initiative, interviews John Farrell and Karlee Weinmann, researchers for ILSR’s Energy Democracy initiative on the prospects of renewable energy given President Trump’s executive orders undermining the Clean Power Plan. The group discusses how the strong market … Read More
This week in Energy Democracy news: Minnesota’s Governor Mark Dayton vetoes legislation that would have removed oversight for rural cooperatives, saving rural solar, plus a story of how Floridians defeated the controversial solar amendment during last year’s election. Featured Stories: How solar advocates defeated a controversial amendment by Eileen Mignoni, Yale Climate Connections Blog In Santa … Read More
