Expanding on the previous post: consider a community that collectively pays $100 million per year for electric service. Could a community and its investor-owned electric utility agree to invest 1% of annual revenue in the utility stock, then use the dividends to fund community climate action?

Let’s apply to a real-world example:

• $100 million annual electric revenue for a mid-size community.
• A major mountain west utility.
• Investment years 2011–2020.
• Dividends not reinvested, in order to fund climate action.

A $1 million investment in January 2011 would have generated $780,000 in dividends over ten years. This is more than most community budget for climate action during this period. The shares would also be worth almost $4 million in December 2020 with forecast rate base and dividend growth of 5–7% per year through 2024.

Obviously there is no guarantee that utility stocks will perform the same or better going forward. It’s also not clear that many communities would have the appetite to raise the funds necessary to do this. Could a Public Utilities Commission raise the funds through customer rates?