Who Owns the Power? Community Control, Public Utilities, and What Ubuntu Economics Demands

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The Question Behind the Question

The debate over public versus private utilities is often framed as an economic efficiency question: which model delivers better service at lower cost? But for communities that have lived through utility shutoffs, contaminated water supplies, and infrastructure neglect, it is not an abstract policy debate. It is a question about whose survival gets prioritized — and who gets to answer that question.

Privately owned utilities answer to shareholders. Their obligation, by law, is to maximize return on investment. When that obligation conflicts with serving low-income customers or maintaining aging infrastructure in underinvested communities, the math is not neutral — it is political. The neighborhoods that experience the worst utility failures are rarely wealthy ones. The communities with the least political power absorb the most risk.

Government-owned and municipally owned utilities operate under a different mandate. Their purpose is service, not profit. That difference matters — and it matters most to the communities whose needs the market has historically decided are too expensive to meet.

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What Community Ownership Actually Delivers

The case for publicly owned utilities is not ideological — it is practical, and it is backed by how these systems actually function when well governed. Public power companies reinvest revenue into the communities they serve rather than distributing it to shareholders. They are subject to public utility commission oversight, which creates accountability structures that private companies do not face. They benefit from economies of scale that allow them to negotiate better rates for energy and equipment. They access government subsidies and low-interest financing unavailable to private firms.

Price stability is one of the most significant advantages. Publicly owned utilities are largely insulated from market volatility — they do not pass speculative energy price spikes directly to customers. For low-income households and Black and brown communities that spend a disproportionate share of income on energy costs, that stability is not a minor benefit. It is the difference between a manageable bill and an impossible choice.

Municipal utilities also create local jobs, keep revenue circulating within the community, and operate under transparency requirements that private companies are exempt from. When the utility is publicly owned, rate decisions are made through a process the community can participate in — not behind closed boardroom doors.

“When the utility is publicly owned, rate decisions happen through a process the community can participate in — not behind closed boardroom doors. That is not a small thing. That is power.”

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The Honest Challenges

Community ownership does not automatically produce good governance. Publicly owned utilities can set rates higher than private competitors if management is poor. They can lack operational expertise if not properly staffed and supported. They are vulnerable to corruption and political pressure — especially when local government lacks strong independent oversight. Customer responsiveness can suffer when there is no competitive pressure to improve service.

These are real risks, and naming them honestly is part of what Ubuntu Village means when we say communities are not problems to solve — they are complex, self-governing entities that require real infrastructure to function well. The goal is not simply to replace private ownership with public ownership and call it done. It is to build the governance structures that make public ownership serve everyone, especially those who have been most failed by private alternatives.

That means strong independent oversight bodies with community representation. It means transparent rate-setting processes. It means local hiring and reinvestment commitments built into the governance structure, not left to goodwill. Community ownership without community accountability is just a different kind of capture.

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What Ubuntu Economics Says About Shared Resources

African communal traditions have long understood that certain resources belong to everyone and must be governed accordingly. Land, water, and the means of sustenance were historically held in trust for the community — not owned as private property to be extracted for individual gain. The enclosure of those commons, first through colonialism and then through structural adjustment and privatization programs, was not economic progress. It was dispossession.

Ubuntu economics — rooted in the philosophy that personhood is constituted in relationship — holds that economic arrangements must be evaluated by how they affect the whole community, not just the most powerful members. A utility model that produces reliable electricity for wealthy neighborhoods while leaving low-income communities to absorb unreliable service and higher rates is not a neutral market outcome. It is a policy choice. And like all policy choices, it can be made differently.

• ‣ Not-for-profit structure means revenue serves the community, not shareholders.
• ‣ Price stability protects households that cannot absorb market volatility.
• ‣ Local job creation keeps economic benefit circulating within the community.
• ‣ Environmental compliance mandates protect the communities most exposed to pollution.
• ‣ Democratic participation in rate-setting is governance, not bureaucracy — it is community power made visible.

“African communal traditions have always understood that certain resources belong to everyone. The enclosure of those commons was not economic progress. It was dispossession.”

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References

• ‣ American Public Power Association — Benefits of Public Power
• ‣ Investopedia — How Government Regulates Utilities
• ‣ NAACP — Environmental and Climate Justice
• ‣ U.S. DOE — Clean Energy and Environmental Justice

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Related Reading

• ‣ Solidarity Is Not a Hashtag: Cooperative Economics and the African Diaspora
• ‣ How Colonialism Continues to Shape Global Health Policy
• ‣ The East Came. The West Came. Africa Was Already Here.
• ‣ Why Supporting Community-Rooted Organizations Changes What’s Possible

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