Empowering households and communities to push for clean, locally owned, affordable energy and challenging the excessive power of monopoly utilities ...

*Stacy Mitchell is a Co-Director of ILSR and directs our Independent Business Initiative. Susan R. Holmberg is a political economist and Associate Director for Research on the Independent Business ...

Local Energy Rules is a biweekly podcast about monopoly power, energy democracy, and how communities can take charge to transform the energy system. Our audience is researchers, grassroots organizers, ...

There are only a handful of banks in the U.S. that are behemoth in size, but they currently hold most of the country’s assets. These “megabanks” — including “Big Four” Wells Fargo, Citigroup, Bank of ...

Chain dollar stores are inundating America’s communities. In both small towns and urban neighborhoods, they are edging out locally owned businesses, freezing out entrepreneurs, and shifting profits ...

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These stores are not merely a symptom of economic distress; they’re a cause of it. Learn how your community can stop dollar stores and join us in calling for federal action to rein in their predatory ...

A network of community composters building the movement by connecting early adopters, spreading lessons learned, and inspiring new operations. The Community Composter Coalition is a network of ...

Composting cuts greenhouse gas emissions, enhances the ability of soil to act as a carbon sink, and builds community resilience to climate disruptions. Use our new graphic to share these benefits! It ...

Randy Wilson knew you had to start somewhere. Knocking on doors and hanging around retail store parking lots, he and volunteers from the citizen group Kentuckians for the Commonwealth collected ...

Colorado scored 10 out of 13 on the 2025 Community Power Scorecard. It passed its first community solar legislation in 2010. Successful and meaningful community solar policies prioritize four central ...

There are many reasons why communities seek to stop a big-box proposal — the effect on local economic development and small businesses, traffic congestion, environmental issues, community impacts, low ...