Designed for lawmakers and advocates, these toolkits include resources and examples of how to use local government to promote local clean energy and hold monopoly utilities accountable.

Local Energy Rules is a biweekly podcast about monopoly power, energy democracy, and how communities can take charge to transform the energy system. Our audience is researchers, grassroots organizers, ...

Minnesota scored 11 out of 13 on the 2025 Community Power Scorecard. It passed its first community solar legislation in 2013. Successful and meaningful community solar policies prioritize four central ...

In 2022, Minnesota’s Public Utility Commission approved an Integrated Resource Plan requiring Xcel to model distributed ...

Our team fights the unchecked power of corporate monopolies and champions policies that level the playing field for small independent businesses. ILSR’s new zine Resist Monopolies is a guide to how ...

You’d think a company with as many resources, employees, and facilities as AT&T or Comcast would have good customer service. Surely, with all the billions of dollars flowing through these businesses, ...

Are you part of a local government and curious to learn how you can help spur local composting? Are you a community-oriented composter or micro hauler searching for public-private partnerships? Or ...

What is Local Self-Reliance? Local self-reliance means that we, the people, are free to exercise power over our lives — how we provide for our families, how resources are shared and allocated in our ...

One way to build local power is to catalyze change directly in your community. Another, equally important method is to catalyze the catalysts. To really make change and build sustainable local ...

These stores are not merely a symptom of economic distress; they’re a cause of it. Learn how your community can stop dollar stores and join us in calling for federal action to rein in their predatory ...

In late 2024, Rachel Hernandez ran a successful campaign to become mayor of Riverbank, California. A small town at the top of the state’s central valley, Riverbank may not fit into what you imagine as ...

David Morris reflects on 50 years of fostering local self-reliance and ILSR. Those of us who were lucky to have worked with ILSR’s co-founder David Morris over many decades invite you to join us in ...