The Movement of Power

Community Energy: Restoring Our Power and Our Balance

Community Energy is about reclaiming our communities’ power to become producers of power, not simply consumers of it. It is about modeling a different way of powering our modern lives and creating the freedom to choose how we move away from fossil fuels.

That choice is especially important for communities that are often on the frontlines of climate and environmental harm. We need to be able, as much as possible, to avoid becoming complicit in the environmental harm that affects our own communities. Community Energy gives us an opportunity to take back some of that power and make decisions that protect our people, our land, and future generations.

Our ancestors have long understood that everything on Earth is connected. They taught that the planet is sustained through the movement of energy and life through the air, the land, the water, and all living things.

When these movements are in balance, life thrives.

For most of human history, our ancestors relied on energy that was already moving around us, the energy of the sun, wind, water, healthy forests, and living land. These sources of energy are part of the Earth’s natural systems and are continually renewed.

During the Industrial Revolution, however, humans increasingly began using fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and gas. These fuels were formed from plants and animals that lived millions of years ago. Over those millions of years, enormous amounts of energy were stored within them.

When we burn fossil fuels, we release that ancient, stored energy in a matter of moments. The energy does not simply disappear. It enters the Earth system and contributes to an imbalance in the way energy moves through the planet.

This imbalance can manifest as excess heat and contribute to changes in climate and weather patterns. We experience some of these changes through rising temperatures, more intense storms, flooding, droughts, wildfires, and other forms of extreme weather. In this sense, the Earth is continually responding to changes in the movement and distribution of energy as it seeks to return toward balance.

Nature already has healthy and regenerative ways of moving, storing, and managing energy.

Forests absorb and store carbon, provide shade, and help regulate temperature. Wetlands store water and can reduce the impacts of flooding. Healthy soils hold water, nutrients, and carbon. Oceans absorb enormous amounts of heat and play a critical role in regulating the climate. Together, these natural systems help maintain the conditions that allow life to thrive.

Yet many of these systems have been damaged or removed by the same economic activities that depend on fossil fuels and produce the many goods and services we consume every day. Forests are cleared, wetlands are drained, soils are depleted, and ecosystems are disrupted.

When these natural systems are damaged, the Earth has fewer healthy pathways for absorbing, storing, and moving energy and water. Our communities consequently become more vulnerable to extreme heat, flooding, drought, storms, wildfire, and other environmental disruptions.

Part of the solution is to stop adding more fossil-fuel pollution to the system. But the solution is also about rebuilding our relationship with the energy that is already here.

This means returning to energy sources that are continually renewed by the Earth—the sunlight that reaches us every day, the movement of wind and water, and the heat within the Earth itself. It means developing systems that allow communities to generate, manage, store, and share energy in ways that are cleaner, more resilient, and more connected to local needs.

It also means restoring the natural systems that have always helped the Earth manage energy and sustain life. Restoring forests, wetlands, soils, waterways, and other ecosystems is not separate from the energy transition. It is part of it.

This is where communities play a critical role.

Community Energy is not only about changing the technology we use to produce electricity. It is about changing our relationship to power—both energy power and community power.

By caring for the land, investing in clean and renewable energy, restoring natural systems, and designing local solutions, communities can become active participants in creating a healthier energy system. We can build systems that recognize the interconnectedness of people, land, water, air, and all living things.

Our ancestors understood that life depends on balance and relationship. Community Energy gives us an opportunity to carry that understanding forward—using the energy already moving around us, restoring the systems that sustain life, and reclaiming our collective power to create communities where both people and the planet can thrive.