Power, People, and the Price of Extraction

Why it matters:

For centuries, extractive energy systems (coal, oil, gas) fueled empires—driving colonization, enslavement, land theft, and resource wars. The logic was simple: control energy → control people → control territory.

The opportunity:

Community-owned, regenerative energy flips the script—putting power (literally) back in the hands of the people and aligning prosperity with planetary health.

The Big Picture

• Energy = empire: Fossil economies required conquest, coerced labor, and compliant states to secure fuel and routes.
• Extraction economics: Profits privatized; pollution, poverty, and political instability socialized.
• Control loops: Whoever owns generation + grids shapes prices, policies, and public possibilities.

Bottom line: The crisis isn’t only carbon—it’s concentrated power.

How We Got Here (fast history)

• Colonial fuel cycles: Plantations, mines, and ports were built to move energy and goods outward—wealth flowed up; harms stayed local.
• Infrastructure as domination: Pipelines, rail, and shipping corridors doubled as tools of territorial control.
• Petro-politics: Resource dependency locked nations into coups, debt, and wars—from oil fields to shipping straits.
• Communities extracted twice: First their labor/land, then their future via pollution and underinvestment.

The Damage (we live it daily)

• People: Displacement, exploitation, redlined neighborhoods, toxic exposure.
• Planet: Warming, water stress, degraded soils, biodiversity loss.
• Politics: Corruption, captured regulators, violence around “strategic” zones.
• Possibility: Local ingenuity smothered by monopoly utilities and distant investors.

 The Shift: Regenerative, Community-Owned Energy

Core idea: Move from centralized, extractive systems to distributed, democratic ones—renewables owned and governed by the communities they power.

What it looks like

• Energy co-ops & public power: Residents own generation; revenues stay local.
• Microgrids + storage: Solar, wind, batteries keep hospitals, schools, and homes running—grid or no grid.
• Agro-voltaics & rooftops: Food + energy on the same land; rooftops become cash-flowing assets.
• Transparent pricing: Cost-reflective rates; profits reinvested in resilience, not dividends.

Why it works

• Physics: Sun + wind are everywhere; electrons don’t need empires.
• Risk: Local ownership reduces geopolitical shocks and price spikes.
• Justice: Benefits flow to frontline communities first, not last.

What Changes When Communities Own Power

• Bills → dividends: Families become stakeholders, not just ratepayers.
• Jobs here, not there: Installation, maintenance, retrofits, and energy services are local work.
• Health gains: Less soot, fewer asthma attacks, safer streets (LED + mobility).
• Civic muscle: Co-ops teach governance, transparency, and shared decision-making.

The Playbook (do this next)

1. Map demand + roofs + land: Identify schools, clinics, and co-op housing as anchor loads.
2. Form an energy co-op: One member = one vote; publish bylaws and conflict rules.
3. Lock fair finance: Public banks, green bonds, CDFIs; cap returns, prioritize affordability.
4. Build microgrids: Solar + storage first; add wind, geothermal, demand response as you scale.
5. Secure interconnection: Negotiate tariffs; push for right-to-connect and community net metering.
6. Share the surplus: Reinvest in weatherization, heat pumps, EV carpools, and resilience hubs.
7. Measure what matters: Energy burden down, outages down, local jobs up, emissions down.

Yes, but…

• “Isn’t it expensive?” Up-front, yes. Over life-cycle, cheaper and safer than fossil volatility.
• “What about reliability?” Microgrids + storage outperform during storms and wildfires.
• “Will it scale?” It already does—distributed systems scale by replication, not just size.

Signals to Watch

• Cities adopting community choice energy and public power.
• Co-ops publishing dividends + outage data.
• Schools + clinics running on solar + batteries as resilience anchors.
• Utility rules changing to permit microgrids, peer-to-peer trade, and fair interconnection.

The Bottom Line

Destructive energy systems were never just about fuel—they were about dominion.
Community-owned regenerative energy is how we decolonize power, stabilize the climate, and unlock human potential.

Power with people → Power for people → Power by people.
That’s the future worth building.

Call to Action

• Communities: Form an energy co-op; start with your school, clinic, or housing complex.
• Mayors + councils: Adopt community choice, microgrid ordinances, and right-to-connect.
• Funders: Back ownership, not just megawatts—finance dividends for households.
• Media (us): Track the wins, publish the playbooks, amplify the replicable models.

Mobilized News will keep mapping where communities flip the switch—and how you can copy what works.