Don’t Let Monopoly Utilities Kill Clean Consumer Choices ...

By Dan Weeks

Co-Owner and Vice President of Commercial Business at Revision Energy

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The future of America’s energy economy is based on renewable sources. In fact, renewables already make up more than 90 percent of new power generation added in the U.S. this year. But if you listen to some utility CEOs, it’s the monopoly utilities who are the only ones capable of meeting today’s energy demands without sacrificing climate goals and customer affordability. This narrative threatens to derail the progress made in renewable energy industries, from solar and wind to geothermal, hydro and renewable fuels—just when demand for energy is spiking to meet the needs of AI.

The real story is this: If utilities extend monopoly control into generation, as some clearly intend to pursue, they will reduce competition, diminish innovation and block renewable growth, all while using policy as a shield to cover their own inefficiencies.

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Clean energy developments don’t compete on an even playing field. They face regulated monopolies that already own the wires, the customers and often, the power plants. Independent renewable energy companies operate under financial constraints, subject to market signals and capital discipline. Utilities, on the other hand, can shift costs to their captive customers and absorb losses while claiming it’s necessary for “reliability.” That undermines fair competition and discourages innovation by rewarding inefficiency instead of performance.

The renewables sector succeeds because it innovates by lowering costs, deploying faster, improving efficiency and tailoring solutions to local needs. Its strength lies in diversity. Many small players are offering consumers a real choice. However, utility generation consolidates power into fewer hands, based on shareholder returns and profits. When utilities control generation, they reduce customer options and use their influence to tilt markets in their favor. Instead of empowering communities to choose local solar, wind, hydro, or renewable fuel options, those alternatives are pushed to the side through unfavorable rate structures and regulatory barriers.

The argument that monopoly-owned generation is the answer to lower costs and reliability is simply false. The real reliability challenges stem from aging transmission systems, lack of grid flexibility, weak market signals and underinvestment in storage and distributed resources—not from a shortage of generation ownership. The difference here is that utilities own the rules. They control transmission access, influence market design and use their position to justify expanding monopoly control under the pretext of ensuring reliability.

Allowing utilities to dominate generation also invites policy capture and regulatory abuse. When a company both delivers and generates power, it gains a disproportionate influence over regulators, leading to unfair advantages and making it harder for other energy providers to compete. A clean energy entrepreneur shouldn’t have to compete against their own regulator’s affiliated business.

There is a better path forward, one that values innovation over monopoly control. Policymakers should prioritize open markets, fair competition and transparency in how energy projects are developed and approved. Oversight must ensure that ratepaying customers, not shareholders, benefit from new investments.

A clean energy future depends on maintaining a level playing field where innovation thrives and consumer choice is protected. Utilities have a role to play in transmission, distribution and grid modernization, but generation should remain competitive and accountable to the public.

We need reliability, affordability and investment, but we don’t need to resurrect a system that protects monopoly profits at the expense of progress. As market forces clearly show, the future of American energy lies in diverse, distributed and renewable innovation across all technologies. It should be built by innovators, entrepreneurs and communities—not by corporate monopolies protecting their profits.

Dan Weeks is co-owner and vice president of commercial business at Revision Energy.

The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.

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