Green and Captured? The Business of Power Sector Decarbonization in Progressive US States

Incumbent power producers have largely been described as political obstacle to decarbonization due to their long record of mobilizing to prevent, delay or water down climate and renewable energy policies. However, emerging research demonstrate heterogenous and mixed incumbent behaviour in energy politics. This paper analyses the strategic policy positioning of large utilities in progressive US states. While a growing share of utilities now support ambitious decarbonization legislation due to the emerging economic benefits associated with fuel-switching, clean assets and new infrastructure rents, utilities continue to oppose distributed generation, such as net-end-metering. We argue that this represents a form of strategic positioning and capture of transitions to clean power, in which utilities can profits from limited decentralization of energy generation, expand markets, and maintain control and ownership of clean assets.