by Katie Rose Quandt | Jun 7, 2026 | Activism, American Water, Municipal Water Supplies, News, Pennsylvania, public utilities, utility rates, Water, water privatization
In January, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court blocked the corporate takeover of a public water system in Chester, Pennsylvania. After a nine-year battle, the court ruled that Chester, a town of 33,000 outside Philadelphia, does not have the jurisdiction to sell the local municipal water system to Aqua, a massive company that owns water and sewer systems throughout the state. The ruling came in…
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by Alex Baumhardt | May 26, 2026 | Data Center, Energy, hydroelectric dams, Indigenous Peoples, News, public utilities, Washington, Yakama Nation
Goldendale, Washington –– High up on the Washington side of the Columbia River near the John Day hydroelectric dam, members of the Yakama Nation gathered to protest a clean energy storage project slated to be built on a sacred tribal site. Supporters of the Goldendale pumped-hydro energy storage project have said it will help meet growing regional energy demand, and the project developers…
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by Derek Seidman | Jan 2, 2026 | Arizona, data centers, Debt, electricity, Energy, energy bills, Fossil Fuels, housing, Interview, labor, New York, public utilities, Racial Justice, Unions, utilities, Washington D.C.
Electricity bills for millions of utility customers are skyrocketing across the U.S. while the number of households facing extreme utility debt is mounting. Energy costs are being turbocharged by the AI data center boom, which is prolonging the burning of fossil fuels in the face of intensifying climate chaos. Overseeing all this is a powerful regime of investor-owned utilities that dominate our…
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by Derek Seidman | Nov 11, 2025 | BlackRock, Climate Change, Climate Crisis, data centers, electricity, Minnesota, News Analysis, Private Equity, public utilities
Ratepayers across the U.S. are facing rising electric bills — a trend that could be turbocharged by Wall Street’s growing effort to capture the electric utilities we all depend on. A critical turning point in this development occurred in October when Minnesota state regulators greenlit the acquisition of Allete by asset management behemoth BlackRock — set to become Allete’s majority…
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