Designing Rules as if Community Matters

The Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR) proposes a set of new rules that builds community by supporting humanly scaled politics and economics. The rules call for:

• Decisions made by those impacted
• Communities accepting responsibility for the welfare of their members and the next generation
• Households and communities possessing or owning sufficient productive capacity to generate real wealth

Community Choice Aggregation lets cities and counties select their own electricity provider, prioritize renewable energy and encourage conservation, without having to own the utility or the power lines. It has expanded in California, and this paper provides an update on this innovative policy. For years, the U.S. has been served by four forms of electric utility: investor-owned, cooperative, municipal, and federal (e.g. Tennessee Valley Authority).  This list is changing. More

ILSR, a member of the Rural Internet and Broadband Policy Group, submitted comments to the Federal Communications Commission  on the matter of a national broadband policy.  Our comments highlight the importance of long term investments that will prioritize local ownership and control as well as open access networks.  The absentee-ownership model has proved detrimental to many rural communities. More

A coalition of environmental and community groups are celebrating a recent San Bernardino County Superior Court judge's decision that invalidates Wal-Mart's environmental impact report (EIR), preventing a supercenter from locating in their community.

Judge Barry Plotkin spurned the faulty EIR, stating that the retail giant did not take adequate measures to mitigate its contribution to climate change and used a faulty market analysis when claiming the new store would have no negative impact on existing businesses. More