Letter from Scott Amundsen

Energy Should Be Clean, Affordable

As the country and the rest of the world experience another year of scorching heat waves, private for-profit utility companies—who we rely upon for our basic necessities, like heating, cooling and electricity—are keeping us reliant on climate-wrecking fossil fuels while reporting record profits.

When they work well, utilities exist in the background of our lives: They power our homes, cool us down when it’s hot, and give us heat when it’s cold. But too often, they are sources of aggravation: The power goes off when it’s dangerously hot or cold out, our bills skyrocket, and these for-profit companies threaten to shut off services when we’re unable to pay.

We know that climate change raises those stakes even higher, and utility companies themselves play a massive role in exacerbating the climate crisis: 80 percent of electric utilities in the U.S. run on fossil fuels.