Portland Phoenix, November 25, 2015 What a difference a year makes, especially in the life of a grocery cooperative. Nearly a decade ago, the Portland Food Co-op was little more than a meeting topic among hopeful residents. But the last year has been a doozy for the cooperative. Its retail grocery store at the base of … Read More
Sonoma News, November 23, 2015 In 2009, a new independent coffee house opened in downtown Seattle. 15th Ave Coffee & Tea featured heavy wood furniture, exotic Darjeeling, live folk music and impromptu poetry readings – it was everything Starbucks wasn’t: A throwback to indie neighborhood coffee houses of the pre-chain era – soulful, authentic and, most … Read More
Wall Street Journal, November 15, 2015 What’s going to happen when a huge incentive to invest in solar power shrinks or vanishes? At the end of next year, the 30% investment tax credit for solar and other renewable power is set to expire for residential systems and plunge to 10% for commercial installations. Boosters are calling for … Read More
The Roanoke Daily Herald published this op-ed about local government action for broadband networks on September 25, 2015. We were responding to an earlier Op-Ed, available here. Christopher Mitchell wrote the following op-ed. It is stunning any legislator can look at the constituents they serve in rural North Carolina and think, “‘These people don’t need the … Read More
Next City, September 16, 2015 If you only pay attention to mainstream media, you might recall advocates for small business sounding like a broken record, constantly repeating the refrain of reducing regulatory burdens. But when New York City’s Small Business First initiative sought public comments last year from small businesses and the public on small business … Read More
Vox, September 11, 2015 In my last post, I explained the core problem facing US electric utilities: They are still structured as monopolies that bundle together disparate energy services, despite new technology making it possible, and desirable, to “unbundle” those services. That core problem explains why so many utilities are fighting rooftop solar, hostile to energy … Read More
WFAE, September 4, 2015 Salisbury, North Carolina – population just shy of 34,000 – can now lay claim to the title of “city with the fastest Internet in the U.S.” It’s not operated by Google, Verizon, or Time Warner Cable. Instead, it’s a homegrown fiber optic network. WFAE’s Ben Bradford says, when city officials launched it, … Read More
Market Watch, September 4, 2015 When Louis Gray bought his two-story Sunnyvale, Calif., home in 2010, a solar power array was already in his plans. He finally took the plunge in March 2014, paying Sunrun Inc. $18,000 for 20 years of electricity. Since then, he said, his monthly gas and electric bill has fallen from as … Read More
American Banker, September 4, 2015 National Credit Union Administration officials will likely reflect on 2015 as the year they were inundated by comment letters. The agency received nearly 2,200 letters last spring tied to a revised draft of its proposed risk-based capital regulation. That total was believed to be a record — but it didn’t stand … Read More
