Issue: Utilities

An interactive map of electricity prices across the US. Includes breakdowns over time (since 2020) and by Congressional district, county, ZIP, and utility.

Our quarterly Clean Energy Deep Dive will explore organizing strategies and winning impactful clean energy solutions, with guests from Ohio Organizing Collaborative and Illinois Environmental Council.

Through focus groups in three California communities — Orange and Ventura counties, the Central Valley, and the Central Coast — Data for Progress and the Reliable Grid Project examined Californians’ attitudes on the growing battery storage industry in the state. This research identified low existing awareness of battery storage projects among Californians, and high variability in views of battery storage’s potential to address the California grid’s most pressing challenges.

New polling from Groundwork Collaborative and Data for Progress reveals Americans reject the Trump Administration’s plan to rely on voluntary commitments from corporate actors to lower household bills. While nearly 90% of Americans say the war on Iran will raise prices on essential items, 60% of voters also view energy demand generated by large commercial energy users as a key driver of rising electricity costs. This polling shows that Americans reject reliance on corporations to do the right thing: 60% of voters prefer public sector leadership on energy, saying the public sector should run both grid modernization (60%) and the utilities themselves (58%), as opposed to the private sector.

Electricity bills have joined groceries, housing, and health care as a top tier issue in the affordability crisis. Voters broadly support clean energy and view it as one of the few solutions to help lower energy costs.

Extreme weather events like winter storm Fern offer a short window of opportunity when people are seeking information related to climate change. But while most Americans believe we are experiencing more extreme weather, many still don’t see it as driven by climate change. Climate communicators need to help people connect the dots.

Recommendations on how to talk about community power, including the opportunity because voters are fed up with skyrocketing bills and. for-profit utility greed and want solution, and a recommended message that “community power” is cheaper, faster, more efficient.

This Blueprint for Affordable Energy lays out a plan to lower energy bills, confront the climate crisis, and rein in runaway corporate power.