Blueprint for Affordable Energy Webinar

Join CURE and People's Action's United Ratepayers Coalition to learn about the Blueprint for Affordable Energy, an urgently needed plan for lowering energy bills, confronting the climate crisis, and reining in runaway corporate power. Nearly one year ago, the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission unanimously approved the acquisition of Minnesota Power—the state’s second largest utility—by private equity interests including BlackRock, ignoring the opposition from a broad set of Northlanders, including ratepayers, residents, small businesses, and the region’s largest industrial employers. Since the approval of the deal, the public has learned even more about how Minnesota Power was in active conversations with the developers of the Hermantown Data Center, a fact that didn’t come to light during the acquisition proceedings. Meanwhile, on November 1, the one-year rate freeze that was imposed on Minnesota Power will come to an end, meaning the utility and its private equity owners will soon be coming to the PUC to ask for rate hikes that many northern Minnesotans can’t afford. But the story isn’t over. Across the country, communities are coming together to resist the consolidation of Big Tech, Big Power, and Wall Street that want to subsidize the data center buildout and pad their bottom lines off the backs of ratepayers. Learn what we can do—on the ground and through policy— to keep our energy bills down and hold Minnesota Power, its private equity backers, and our state regulators to account and make sure we don’t pay the price for their profits. SPEAKERS: Mónica Mariko Embrey (she/her) is a campaigns consultant, focused on issues of energy and climate justice, having directed campaigns related to ending fossil fuel extraction and passing inclusive and equitable policies to advance decarbonization of the power sector, transportation sector, residential and commercial buildings, and manufacturing industries. Previously, she was the Western Energy Director for the Sierra Club, Campaign Manager at California Calls and Senior Climate Campaigner at Greenpeace USA. She lives in Los Angeles. Hudson Kingston (he/him) joined CURE as Legal Director in 2023 with a background in environmental law, public health law, and consumer protection. He has worked in both the Midwest and Washington D.C. on litigation and policy related to climate change, water pollution impacts of mining, pesticide regulation, the environmental and health impacts of e-cigarettes, public records and government transparency, and environmental injustices perpetuated by the administrative state. A born and raised Minnesotan, Hudson lives in the home his grandparents built in the woods outside Ely. MODERATOR: Maggie Schuppert (she/they) Is CURE’s Director of Strategic Initiatives. Before joining CURE in 2021, she worked around the world with communities adversely impacted by large-scale energy and development infrastructure projects, helping them fight for their community rights. She brings this commitment to environmental rights, justice, and accountability to her organizing and advocacy work in Minnesota. Maggie lives near Ely, MN, where she dabbles in cold climate gardening, DIY home improvements, and tends to a menagerie of cats and dogs.