Friends,

Don’t give up. Yes, this authoritarian president is unleashing attacks on our civil rights and the U.S. government itself with illegal executive orders designed to overwhelm all of us. This matches the plans they announced two years ago. But the Trump presidency is unpopular. I encourage each of you to remember this and to join efforts to protect your local community, especially immigrants and trans people who are being targeted first and most.

What the Trump presidency cannot do is stop us from dreaming. Our opponents can’t stop our vision for public power anymore than they can keep you from dreams of a better life for yourself, your families, and your loved ones. Their vision is a future of fear, despair, and isolation. Our is a future with joy, care, and community, made tangible with an electricity system buzzing with justly sourced, renewable electricity for all. That’s what the future of public power is about, and that’s what Public Grids will keep building with you until we win.

In our last newsletter, i told you about the encouragement Public Grids received from across the country and around the world. This month we started to dig in. I spoke with dozens of ordinary people across the country, and my tally of possible public power fights now spans 13 different states and D.C. More are coming. Confidence in the future of public power isn’t false bravado; it is grounded in the research and actions of activists, organizers, and civic leaders already working to make our public power future a reality nationwide from the bottom up.

Translating federal news into our neighborhoods

One of the biggest news stories about the president’s actions this week is about the unconstitutional impoundment - or illegal seizure of Congressional authority on federal spending - his administration is attempting to force through. If allowed to stand, this act will cause real harm in our communities in many ways, including on our energy bills.

If this unconstitutional freeze goes into effect, it will block any more aid for Americans from the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), a federal assistance program established and budgeted for by Congress. Since 1980, this government program has supported people who need to pay their bills when they are experiencing an emergency. It helped 7.2 million Americans stay warm in the winter and cool in the summer. Last year people were turned away because the fund ran out in some states, but this would stop aid everywhere.

Two federal judges have determined these orders are illegal. This situation is changing on a daily basis, but the bottom line is clear: energy unaffordability was a crisis before Trump and it will become much worse because of his presidency. When we remake this system, no one should go without electricity ever again. Existing public power agencies can work now to innovate new solutions to address this crisis in their own service areas, making the benefits of public power even more appealing.

Public Grids in The New Republic

I spoke with Liza Featherstone about the economic importance of public power in the United States for The New Republic this week. In her article, What Trump’s Tariffs Could Mean for Your Utility Bill, she describes the possible impact of the upcoming tariffs on electricity that we import from Canada. She writes, “25 percent tariffs on Canadian and Mexican imports will raise energy costs in dramatic ways that ordinary Americans will feel.”

This isn’t just a number on a page, and i put that percent into perspective, telling her about the fifty-two million Americans who already can’t pay their energy bills already. (By the way, this is a real number from the U.S. Census but i can no longer link you to it because the Trump administration pulled down the U.S. Census website last Friday.)

Under the private utilities through which most Americans get their energy, says advocacy group Public Grids’ executive director, Isaac Sevier, “we already pay a tariff because of how much corporate profit is priced in, compared to what the price would be under public power.”

“The energy corporations aren’t going to absorb those costs,” Sevier says. “They will pass it along to people already suffering with paying their bills.” But when energy is publicly owned, the costs imposed by misguided policies like Trump’s need not be passed along to the ratepayers.

Trump’s tariffs on electricity imports will be devastating in the Northeast, a region already hard hit by the lack of funding for LIHEAP, as i discussed above. These will affect costs for all electricity users, but because public power rates are lower than for-profit utility rates, anyone with a public power utility will be better off, even after the tariffs are enacted.

Public power in the media

• What Trump’s Tariffs Could Mean for Your Utility Bill by Liza Featherstone, The New Republic
• How US states are leading the climate fight – despite Trump’s rollbacks by Dharna Noor, The Guardian
• Environmental Justice Advocates in New York City Fault Statewide Plan for Renewable Energy Development by Lauren Dalban, Inside Climate News
• Roseville to host 2025 Lineworkers Rodeo by staff of Roseville Today

Public power inspiration and education

(from shorter to longer!)

• Competition watchdog probes ScottishPower owner’s £2.1bn network deal by Holly Williams, The Standard
• Power grid operator, Pennsylvania governor reach deal in utility bill dispute by Adam Willis, The Baltimore Banner
• The spreadsheet brigade that's keeping LA's rental market from exploding by Alissa Walker, Torched LA
• Edison Faces Scrutiny, Lawsuits Over Eaton Fire by Howard Fine, Los Angeles Business Journal
• The Los Angeles Fires Accelerated the Looming Natural Gas Crisis by Joshua Lappen, Heatmap News
• Mike Davis, California’s ‘prophet of doom’, on activism in a dying world: ‘Despair is useless’ by Lois Beckett, The Guardian
• CenterPoint Energy settles rate case, will lower power costs for customers by Pavan Acharya, The Texas Tribune
• Data Center Build Out Creates Unprecedent Risk To Hoosiers, an analysis by the Citizens Action Coalition of Indiana 
• Eliminate Excessive Utility Rates of Return, a policy proposal by Mark Ellis, American Economic Liberties Project

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To speak to you personally for a moment, this month has been difficult for many people. I spoke with my friends doing frontline protection work on low income programs and eviction. I heard from my friends who are transgender especially, others who are LGBTQ, immigrants, and vocal champions for gender, racial, and climate justice. We are under attack. But the naked cruelty of the attack is inspiring new perspectives in everyone, everywhere, all at once.

I heard inspiring and courageous commitments to doing something completely different, together. We’re not interested in going back to January 19 – everyone i spoke with wants real, systemic change for good. Building our future from the ground up is becoming more possible because of this shift in our collective understanding of the moment. We’re growing stronger, not weaker. Bolder, not smaller. You matter to that work, and your time, talents, and spirit can’t be replaced. We need you. I’m here for you. Don’t give up. Let’s fight together. ~ isaac

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Thank you for reading our newsletter! Can you share this right now with ✨five✨ of your friends and colleagues in the climate justice fight? Organizing together is what it’s going to take to win, and every action you take matters.

Public Grids and our movement partners across the country are ready for investment that secures our movement’s power, capacity, and resiliency for the years ahead. If you want to make a gift, no matter how large or small, please email us today.

With gratitude and solidarity,
isaac sevier