As Electricity Bills Rise, Activists Are Demanding Public Control of Utilities

"Electricity bills for millions of utility customers are skyrocketing across the U.S. while the number of households facing extreme utility debt is mounting. Energy costs are being turbocharged by the AI data center boom, which is prolonging the burning of fossil fuels in the face of intensifying climate chaos. Overseeing all this is a powerful regime of investor-owned utilities that dominate our energy system."

"Public power means public ownership and democratic control of our energy system. It's an alternative to corporate-owned, profit-driven utilities. Public utilities in the U.S. are not new, and recent campaigns - from Tucson to Milwaukee, from San Diego to Ann Arbor - seek to expand and improve on this precedent, creating a truly democratic public utility system that serves human needs over profits."

Electricity bills are rising sharply and household utility debt is increasing nationwide, driven in part by the AI data center boom and continued fossil-fuel burning. Investor-owned, for-profit utilities control most energy infrastructure, enabling executives and shareholders to profit by raising rates or cutting maintenance, while private equity eyes the sector. A growing public power movement seeks public ownership and democratic control of energy, building on existing public utilities and recent wins like New York's Build Public Renewables Act. Local campaigns in cities such as Tucson, Milwaukee, San Diego, and Ann Arbor aim to prioritize human needs over corporate profits.

Read at Truthout