Our time with ILSR’s John Farrell

On February 28, The EDCO Film Crew sat down with John Farrell, the Co-Director of the Institute for Local Self Reliance (ILSR), and Director of the ILSR’s Energy Democracy Initiative. John is one of the nation's leaders in taking on monopoly corruption and advocating for a democratic energy system. 

John’s groundbreaking new report exposes the monopoly-dominated nature of our electric grid as the “single biggest obstacle to a rapid transition to clean energy,” and the perspectives he shared were critical to our efforts to show that energy democracy is the missing piece of the climate movement.

Our conversation covered how electricity companies crush pro-solar initiatives when they threaten monopoly authority, how these same companies use their government-guaranteed profits to fund political campaigns, and the “revolving door” that allows the officials responsible for regulating monopolies to receive huge financial rewards for towing the company line.