ENERGY
Transportation
Reinventing Production Food Systems Energy and Transportation Information and Communications Materials and Resources
There’s no need to re-invent the wheel, RethinkX sums it up with clarity above all:
To understand where we’re at, how we got here and how we can create a healthier and more prosperous co-existence, we refer to the summation of RethinkX:
Transport will be disrupted in myriad ways (details are laid out in our Rethinking Transportation 2020-2030 report).
TaaS (shared A-EVs hailed on demand) will rapidly replace the model of individual car ownership and with it the combustion engine. Electric vehicles (trucks, vans, buses, and cars) can drive half a million miles (soon to be one million) as opposed to around 140,000 miles for ICE vehicles. This means fleets will also have to go electric because the per-mile cost of EVs is one third (soon to be one sixth) the cost of ICE transportation in high-utilization models.
Companies like Amazon and Fedex will have no choice but to quickly replace their whole fleets with electric trucks and vans for purely economic reasons.
As human drivers are replaced, congestion will ease and the possibility of integrating other electric forms of transport (scooters, drones, and bikes) will emerge. Together, these disruptions will deliver a transportation system 10x cheaper and far more efficient than the one it replaces. As the speed of transport improves in congested areas, this new system will create possibilities to change where we live and work, transforming the layout of cities and towns. Its impact will
ripple out across trains, logistics, aviation, oil, climate change, and geopolitics. Just like the ICE car did 100 years before them, new modes of transportation will restructure culture, entertainment, and commerce.
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)
- Map demand + roofs + land: Identify schools, clinics, and co-op housing as anchor loads.
- Form an energy co-op: One member = one vote; publish bylaws and conflict rules.
- Lock fair finance: Public banks, green bonds, CDFIs; cap returns, prioritize affordability.
- Build microgrids: Solar + storage first; add wind, geothermal, demand response as you scale.
- Secure interconnection: Negotiate tariffs; push for right-to-connect and community net metering.
- Share the surplus: Reinvest in weatherization, heat pumps, EV carpools, and resilience hubs.
- 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.
