A Bright Idea 💡 What Energy Justice Looks Like for Frontline Communities in the Midwest
Last year became the hottest year on record across the globe. As extreme weather events become more frequent, the list of life-saving utilities is expanding–heat and air conditioning are increasingly important for regulating internal temperatures of homes across the country, and electricity demands are on the rise. But utility affordability remains a national challenge. One in five American households were unable to pay an energy bill for at least one month of the year in 2024. For low to moderate income households and households of color that number was even higher with 33% of low to moderate income families and 29% of families of color struggling to pay their energy bills. Now more than ever, energy solutions that are sustainable and affordable for everyday consumers are critical to build healthy communities
To create meaningful change in how energy is distributed and used by consumers, many community organizations in the Midwest are working to achieve energy justice. Energy Justice is defined as achieving equity in the social and economic participation in the energy system, while also remediating the burdens of energy inequity that have been put on frontline communities, with a result of energy that is democratically managed.
Our regional partners advocating for energy justice are in a balancing act between increasing access to affordable utilities for customers, and building sustainable infrastructure for renewable energy systems in their communities. While these issues can be pitted against one another in renewable energy discussions, community-driven solutions offer pathways that address utility affordability and sustainability.
So–what does energy justice look like here? It can take the form of direct consumer education about ratepayers’ rights when dealing with utility companies, or clean energy transitions in home appliances. It can also look like championing state policy initiatives that advocate for consumer protections around essential utility shutoffs and utility affordability. And it also looks like building community-owned renewable energy projects that empower everyday people to have direct control over where their energy comes from and how it gets distributed.
State-Level Consumer Education
A photo from Michigan Environmental Justice Coalition’s Ratepayer Clinics. Image courtesy of MEJC, 2024.
The Michigan Environmental Justice Coalition's Ratepayers Clinics were established to help equip underserved community members with knowledge of their rights as consumers of DTE energy and opportunities to connect one-on-one with legal counsel. Their website has resources for unpaid bills, wrongful billing, shut-off notices, loss/damage to property, power outages, and debt collection to support consumers facing these issues.
COPAL’s Clean Heat Campaign in Minnesota focuses on home electrification, which involves replacing appliances that use fossil fuels (like natural gas) with clean electric alternatives like heat pumps for heating and cooling, induction stoves, electric dryers, and heat pump water heaters. They have held workshops on technologies needed, available funding for transition, and have also prioritized hosting workshops in Spanish to reach Latino communities in the state.
Utility Rate Advocacy
Across the country, utility costs are on the rise. In the last three years alone, residential electric bills of the average American household increased $264 annually. As rates rise, many have pointed to an increase in extreme weather events and tech companies’ demands to build more data centers as reasons behind the price hikes. But the work of our partners remind us that utility reliability and affordability have been longstanding issues that are coming into focus with these new realities.
As temperatures become more volatile globally, inequitable utility operations are becoming more life-threatening to people than ever before. This is especially true for the Midwest–historically a place with some of the coldest temperatures in the country–and now experiencing extreme heat waves in the summer. Climate change is directly tied to high utility rates across the U.S. For example, DTE, a Michigan Utility company notorious for rate hikes, requested another rate hike in April 2025, on heels of a $217-million January 2025 increase. In states like South Dakota, consumers are facing rate increases on utilities from several utility companies, especially as tax credits for renewable energy disappear. And across the region, as Artificial Intelligence (AI) becomes more prevalent, data center expansions are leaving consumers to foot the bill. So as the prices of utilities rise, people are left with increased water shut-offs on the hottest days of the year and electricity disconnections. The compounding effects of climate change and utility pricing has caused people to die from overheating in larger numbers over the last 2 decades.
Several initiatives have been put forth to advocate for energy affordability in Michigan, Minnesota and Illinois. Blacks in Green (BiG) and LVEJO have put together the People’s Utility Rate Relief Act, the product of the Campaign to End Energy Poverty. The bill will protect Illinois consumers by reducing disconnections of essential utilities, and requires the Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC) to “specifically assess affordability in all of its decisions.” In November 2023, the affordability framework of this act was adopted by the ICC. COPAL’s Clean Heat campaign successfully won two rate cases against Xcel Energy and CenterPoint Energy to ensure that customers’ bills didn't have to cover American Gas Association membership dues that the energy companies had to pay.
Community-Owned Renewable Energy
Blacks in Green in Illinois has created the Sustainable Square Mile™ approach. Energy is a cornerstone of this plan, with goals of producing and storing the village's own energy for heat, light, green homes and transportation, and owning the means of energy production within each square mile.
MN Renewable Now has established the Community Solar Gardens (CSGs) which lowers the energy bill for consumer members by 10-20%. Additionally, everyone can subscribe, including homeowners, renters, businesses, and organizations. They have been able to convert the electricity consumption of over 100 households to renewable energy since October 2019.
Founded in 2023 by Blacks in Green, Green Energy Justice Cooperative in Illinois is successful in distributing the benefits of community solar. This cooperative is a member-owned and democratically controlled organization. Members have full voting rights and shared ownership in their projects. Subscribing to solar allows members to receive credits on their electric bills. The credits offer a discount of up to 20% on the energy supply part of the consumer's bill. In 2024, the Illinois Climate Bank backed the Green Energy Justice Cooperative project with a $1.6 million loan to build the three community-based solar projects in Will and Du Page Counties.
Roadblocks to Powering Equitable Utilities
As rate hikes and power outages continue to put stress on consumers, there is an alternative energy source race to figure out how to lower rates and provide reliable energy for communities. In this race, there is a tension between current utility companies, new utility infrastructure that is community owned, and new renewable energy developers looking to profit– it’s important to know who is who.
Utility Monopolies As Midwest states roll out IRA tax incentives for renewable energy updates to our power grids, some statewide utility companies see this change as a threat. Electric utilities can be considered a ‘platform monopoly’ because of their exclusive control of the industry’s infrastructure, such as the electric grid, giving them unilateral power to snuff out the competition. So even when renewable energy may be more cost-efficient, wider choices for consumers are viewed as a threat to companies that keep the grid locked.
Greenwashing Solutions Some utility companies are jumping on the bandwagon of solar and wind renewables, in a way that some activists would describe as greenwashing. The city of Detroit’s solar project, by LightStar Renewables LLC, and DTE Energy, is a site of controversy. This project bought out and knocked down around 100 Detroit homes to put in solar panels in the city, and while LightStar stresses that they went through a community-engagement process on the type of trees to plant around the fencing, putting in leasing agreements for land under the panels for urban farmers, and offering around 15k to neighbors for weatherization support, all of the energy generated from the panels will be sent straight to DTE, with no agreements on rate decreases for solar panel neighbors.
Nuclear Hype Increased electricity demands nationwide have spurred policymakers to turn to nuclear energy, which is now being touted as a sustainable energy solution that has garnered bipartisan support, but which continues to pose environmental dangers when it comes to nuclear waste, especially to BIPOC communities. Just Moms STL works on passing policy and educating neighbors on radioactive waste dumped in St. Louis, Missouri. In 2025, they passed the Radiation Exposure Act, which details the 19 types of cancer linked to toxic waste, zip codes where it was dumped, and compensations available to people affected. Citizens' Resistance at Fermi Two (CRAFT) Indigenous-led, grassroots organization founded after an accident at Fermi 2 near Monroe, Michigan that dumped 1.5 million gallons of radioactive water into Lake Erie. They have worked for decades to shut down Fermi 2. Michigan is poised to revive a nuclear energy plant to meet energy demands.
Policy and Regulatory Barriers are another reason communities are struggling to obtain solar. In Michigan, several counties enacted moratoriums on utility solar development, because some are concerned about the possible harm to rural lands, property values, farmland availability and impacts on soil health. In Ohio, there is a continuous ban on community solar that prohibits residents from pooling together their resources and investing in solar. Additionally, Michigan’s community solar is difficult to achieve because it requires the permission of investor owned utilities like DTE and Consumer Energy, leaving most cities and towns in a policy grid lock.
A Bright Idea
A just transition to renewable utilities is vital. Community groups are looking for creative solutions to build that infrastructure among a dynamic and complex landscape. With rising prices for utilities, increasing data center construction and volatile weather conditions, it is crucial for utilities to be accessible and affordable to folks. Many successful community projects have been had to navigate the complex landscape of actors looking to co-opt and greenwash “community solar”-- using it to profit -- and have left behind lessons of what types of proposals to be wary of. Energy Justice is grounded in cheaper rates for consumers, energy that is managed for and by the community, and accessible for everyone– this is the future partners are fighting for.
