Prioritizing the Long Term Health of Our Community

Municipalization is the process of transferring control of our utilities from investor hands to Loudoun County Government. This is done by purchasing the existing infrastructure through negotiation or eminent domain. The utility will then be run directly by the Loudoun Government or a newly created public authority. This will get rid of the greed-based model of investor owned utilities, and return profits and control to the public

With our power infrastructure under community control, we can underground power lines that run through populated areas. By doing this, we not only protect resident’s quality of life, but we can also decrease the long term infrastructure maintenance cost. Under the current investor owned model, companies are incentivized to let maintenance costs balloon so they can charge ratepayers more and expand their profits. A public utility would not have these perverse incentives, letting us build a more equitable energy system.

The longer term thinking allowed by a public utility allows them to better invest in the green energy transition. Green energy, particularly solar, can not only keep the county's carbon footprint down, but can also improve the health of residents. We would be able to improve everyone's quality of life by reducing the carbon footprint and pollution caused by the data center industry.

An investor owned utility is not accountable to the people, meaning they have no incentive to harden our infrastructure against the increasing effects of the climate crisis. With a public utility, we can invest into more resilient infrastructure. Undergrounding power lines, local solar, battery storage and other infrastructure improvements can help to insure that the power stays on, even in times of crisis.