In the News Podcast: Can More Competition Fix an Outdated Energy System? — Episode 137 of Building Local Power
In this episode of Building Local Power, ILSR Co-Director John Farrell is joined by Chris Villarreal, President of Plugged In Strategies and an Associate Fellow with the R Street Institute. Their discussion focuses on monopoly power in the energy sector, and how lack of competition impacts consumers and stands in the way of progress.
Highlights of their conversation include:
- What’s behind growing interest in public takeovers of electric utilities.
- Why electricity markets were originally designed as monopolies and why that structure doesn’t fit the way energy use and production has evolved.
- How utilities use their monopoly power to shape regulation and limit competition.
- Rethinking utilities and the energy distribution system in order to incentivize competition.
