Energy & Advocacy News

In the United States, electric utility companies are primarily responsible for the generation and distribution of electricity. Electric utilities have traditionally depended on large, centralized power plants, usually burning fossil fuel, to produce electricity. Under the traditional utility business model utilities depend on increasing energy sales to earn a profit. However, the traditional utility model is facing challenges. In much of the United States, electricity sales have stagnated and even decreased, even as electrical devices have proliferated in our homes, schools and work places. Nationally, electric retail sales increased an average of over 2% from 1982 to 2007, but since then sales have stagnated with a slight average annual decrease of 0.2%. Read more here.