By Matthew Cardinale ATLANTA, Georgia, Apr 30 (IPS) - As the United Nations and countries around the world look at cooperatives as an alternative economic model for the production of energy, rural energy cooperatives have thrived for over eight decades in the U.S., and citizens in some parts of the country are beginning to reclaim them through the democratic process. There are more than 900 rural electric cooperatives, or Energy Membership Corporations (EMCs), providing ...

A Wyoming electric cooperative worked with leaders of a well-known resort community to help improve efficiency at a wastewater treatment plant. A series of energy-efficiency upgrades to the facility is expected to save the city of Jackson $64,000 annually in electricity costs. The co-op’s consumer-members will also save money. “The town sewer plant is the largest energy consumer in Teton County,” said Jackson Mayor Mark Barron. The mayor recently accepted a rebate check for $457,711 on ...

Maybe we’ve been looking for models in all the wrong places. To find the elusive secret to making web journalism sustainable in community after community, maybe we need to take a peek behind the curtain into the secret sector of the economy. For years now, people have been trying to devise business models for online community journalism that are both sustainable and replicable, but the usual sectors aren’t delivering: Only a few isolated for-profit sites are generating enough advertising ...