Power to The People: Bernie calls for federal takeover of electricity production

Sen. Bernie Sanders has put nationalizing health insurance at the center of his presidential campaign, but his proposal to fight climate change also calls for a government takeover of a fundamental segment of the economy — electricity production. 

Sanders has laid out a $16 trillion climate change plan that would transition U.S. electricity generation away from fossil fuels to renewable resources like wind, solar and hydropower by 2030. 

That’s far faster than any other Democratic candidate's target and sets a pace that rivals like former Vice President Joe Biden say is unrealistic. And like Sanders' healthcare plan, the green energy push would muscle many of the country's biggest companies out of the business. 

A Sanders administration would pour funding into the four existing "power marketing administrations" that are overseen by the Energy Department, as well as the Tennessee Valley Authority and one newly created entity, to vastly expand their solar, wind and geothermal power production. 

Those organizations currently provide power from hydroelectric dams to 33 states, and would be able to sell the increased green energy to local utilities nationwide — creating a sort of "public option" that would compete with the coal, natural gas and nuclear plants owned by privately owned power generators. 

But critics say that government expansion won't sit well in many parts of the country, including some places Democrats will need to defeat President Donald Trump. 

“What the Sanders proposal would do is create an 800-pound federally owned power gorilla that would make it very hard for the existing generators to compete,” said Josh Freed, head of energy and climate policy at Third Way, a centrist think tank that opposes the Sanders plan. 

“I think a plan like this could turn off voters in large parts of the country. It would have challenges in Pennsylvania, Michigan — a lot of the states that are competitive for the election.”

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