Hi Everyone!

My name is Lucy Hochschartner, and I’m the new Campaigns Director at Public Grids! I’m bringing everything I learned on the Pine Tree Power campaign in Maine to build our program to support local campaigns that not only win but can build the power this movement will need to guarantee universal, clean electricity access for all. I couldn’t be more excited to be here, because so much of my life has led up to this moment.

I grew up in the shadow of the climate crisis in the Adirondack Mountains. As early as elementary school, I remember realizing that we had the technological solutions for a livable future, but we lacked the political will to deploy them. It wasn’t until I graduated college in a global pandemic, moved to Montana to ski race, and happened into a movement of people fighting climate change, the far-right, and the corporate utility, NorthWestern Energy, that I understood why.

I will never forget meeting the CEO of our utility with a group of young people from the Sunrise Movement. This CEO was making more than $3 million a year — which meant that each week, he brought in more than the median household in Montana did each year. Someone asked, “How can we trust that you are serious about lowering emissions when you’re planning to build a new gas plant and keep the coal plant open?” His answer? “We’re not asking you to trust us.” His honest reply made the political equation for fighting climate change crystal clear to me.

We all want clean air to breathe, good jobs to sustain us, and electricity that we can afford. But we have outsourced our basic needs to corporations and the ultra-rich. Their job was, is, and always will be to make a profit above all else. If we want a better future, we have to change the rules and keep fighting for public power.

Shortly after that meeting, I saw that people in Maine were trying to do just that. They were trying to create a consumer-owned utility by taking over the state’s two major investor-owned utilities. We learned so much fighting that campaign, some of which we shared in the 2023 State of the Movement. In this role at Public Grids, I’ll transform those lessons and more into actionable insights to use nationwide.

I cannot wait to meet all of you and bring my experience as a competitive athlete, Democratic campaigner, policy advocate, and volunteer movement leader to one goal in our movement: winning power owned by the people, for the people, with the people.

Here’s to the power we have together to win,
Lucy

Building a national movement at People Power for Public Power 2025

How do we create a joyful future, one where we own and decide the purpose of our electricity system alongside other social and climate justice movements? Where is the public power movement going? How can we defeat the despair of fascism? Who are we, collectively?

These are the guiding questions for People Power for Public Power 2025, the national movement summit organized by Public Grids! Our event this year will be held from October 8-12 in Portland, Oregon. At our convening, we will:

• Connect more than 20 local, public power campaigns across the country

• Learn about the history of public power and the present issues facing activists who want to acquire or build a publicly owned electricity system

• Identify the patterns in our organizing and opposition that we need to address in order to build power to win

• Form movement strategies about how to support one another, keep each other safe, and adapt to the evolving political landscape

Our summit is collaboratively designed with a local and national committee of folks from Breach Collective, Lead Locally, DSA’s Green New Deal Committee, and Tucson DSA.

We are opening a very limited number of spots to join us because of the critical moment we are in for building our vision for the future.

If you are a grassroots organizer who is leading an active campaign for public power that we have not contacted already, please reach out to info@publicgrids.org ASAP, and tell us about your campaign.

Grassroots to global solidarity with the labor movement

The movement for public ownership and economic democracy is global, and, in many places around the world, it’s led by organized labor.

In June, Public Grids sponsored the participation of U.S. trade unionists at the Public Services International Research Unit (PSIRU) Summer School 2025 in order to build more connections among workers, researchers, and institutions around the world.

PSIRU is the research center for the global trade union federation, Public Services International (PSI). They fight to defend workers and make the case for protecting and advancing public goods - like water, transit services, electricity, and others - around the world.

The summer school was a collaboration between PSIRU, PSI, Trade Unions for Energy Democracy, and the Transnational Institute.
During our time together, we were presented with practical methodologies, including strategic corporate research, decarbonization modeling, revenue and job creation analysis, data visualization, critical policy research, and intra-union organizing.

“The definitive strength of the school was the people it brought together and the opportunity to learn from specific struggles, especially in the Global South.” - a Public Grids participant at PSIRU Summer School

What we learned and exchanged with other workers around the world will shape our organization’s research about the labor and community strategies needed to build collective power and meaningfully transition toward public ownership in the U.S.

Public power in the media

• Global Trade Unionists and Activists Unite in London to Build Strategic Research Capacity for Public Services Defence by Adeyinka Adeniran

• Labor leaders worry Trump wants to privatize Tenn. energy provider, warn prices & jobs at risk by Chris Davis

• Proposed sale of Minnesota Power to private equity firm raises questions about state's energy future by Jenna Yeakle and Maggie Schuppert

• This tiny town wants to be the first in Minnesota to evict Xcel Energy and start its own utility by Walker Orenstein

• Why Denver must stand up to Xcel Energy by Jeff Ackermann

Public power inspiration and education

(from shorter to longer!)

• Amazon’s Secret Plot to Build a Data Center in the Desert by More Perfect Union (video)

• A Public Power Struggle in Tucson with Lee Ziesche and John Farrell (podcast)

• Reclaiming Energy: Public pathways to break the fossil fuel cycle by Lavinia Steinfort, Rowan Mataram, and James Angel

• The Energy Democracy Movement Declaration a joint publication by Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung, Transnational Institute, and other movement partners

• A remunicipalisation guide for workers and trade unions by Public Services International

• A Handbook For Public Power Campaigns by Ingrid Behrsin

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With gratitude and solidarity,
Your team at Public Grids