Originally published at ilsr.org. ILSR co-director Stacy Mitchell appeared Chris Hayes’ podcast, Why Is This Happening?. Hayes, the host of MSNBC’s nightly All In with Chris Hayes, uses his one-hour weekly podcast to dig deeper into news and political topics with expert guests. On this episode, Stacy and Chris discuss…

Originally Published at ilsr.org. Podcast (buildinglocalpower): Play in new window | Download | Embed Subscribe: Android | RSS In this episode, ILSR’s Co-Director, John Farrell, is joined by Alan Hipólito of Verde. Alan joins several activists in leading the fight for clean energy equity in Portland, Oregon. To move this…

Originally published at ilsr.org. As Election Day draws near, voters in 36 states and three territories are set to choose governors. In Maine, gubernatorial candidates are making rural broadband a key issue. All four candidates agree that the state needs to be involved in some way, and each recently gave…

Originally published at ilsr.org. Join us for a webinar on November 1st at 2p.m. EST to hear from two cities with robust residential food waste collection programs; San Francisco, Calif. and Falls Church, Va. San Francisco has one of the longest-standing programs in the country, with mandatory recycling citywide. Alexa…

Originally published at ilsr.org In September, Reedsburg Utility Commission (RUC) in Wisconsin announced that they’re simplifying life for subscribers. They’ve eliminated service tiers and now everyone who signs up for the service receives affordable, symmetrical gigabit Internet access from their recently rebranded LightSpeed service. Rebranding, Redefining Fast and Affordable Back in May, RUC decided that…

Originally published at ilsr.org By John Farrell Municipal elections often fall off the radar during national ones, but cities retain a surprising amount of power over their energy future. What can you ask a local candidate or elected official to pursue? The following list of 11 resolutions, actions, and rules…

Written by Neil Seldman Recently, environmental regulators in Maryland have proposed regulations that would require Wheelabrator’s Baltimore trash incinerator (also known as BRESCO) cut its emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx) by approximately one-fifth, or about 200 tons a year. Nitrogen oxides contribute to smog and irritate the respiratory system, increasing…

This article originally posted at ilsr.org. Have you always wanted to compost in your backyard or garden, but haven’t known where to begin? Have you tried but given up due to poor results? Or do you just need help troubleshooting your existing composting system? If any of these are…

Article by Neil Seldman and Bob Gedert Two decades ago, the dominant waste hauling companies began a highly successful campaign to persuade cities to adopt a system in which all recyclables were commingled and deposited in a single cart. Single-stream recycling collection systems proved very profitable to these companies. And…