Reclaim Our Power is transforming California’s energy landscape by challenging the state’s failed private utility model and demanding a transition toward a safe, reliable, community-and-worker-owned energy system. Born out of the resilience and vision of communities most impacted by the extractive, dangerous, Wall Street-controlled energy system, this frontline-led campaign puts environmental justice communities at the center of energy decision-making processes. As they put it: “Justice is the goal, energy is the tool.”
They bring together communities that have been unfairly burdened with the impacts of a dirty, dangerous energy system to demand transformation that benefits all Californians, especially those most harmed by PG&E and California’s other for-profit investor-owned utility monopolies. The campaign emerged during PG&E’s bankruptcy proceedings to mobilize a broad coalition of utility ratepayers, social justice advocates, and allies in opposition to utility bailouts and in support of a publicly accountable transformation of California’s energy monopoly. Rather than pouring billions into propping up a dangerous, antiquated electrical and gas infrastructure, they advocate for a decentralized restructuring that moves California toward community ownership and democratic control.
The campaign has maintained consistent pressure on California officials through protests, policy advocacy, and public education. Their 2024 report, “The Case for Golden State Energy: Benefits of a Nonprofit Utility Model to Serve California,” provides a concrete roadmap for public ownership alternatives. In 2023, they organized protests at PG&E conferences where the Governor’s Office of Energy Infrastructure Safety was speaking, demanding accountability from the utility company responsible for some of the state’s largest wildfires.
Reclaim Our Power envisions replacing the old centralized electrical system with “a web of decentralized, distributed energy systems that generate, store, and distribute clean, renewable power locally and regionally.” Their platform includes corporate accountability measures ensuring utilities pay for their own disasters rather than passing costs to ratepayers, frontline leadership in utility governance, and environmental justice protections.
To learn more about their groundbreaking work organizing for community-controlled energy systems, visit Reclaim Our Power’s website.