About Acsep
Americans for Common Sense Energy Policies (ACSEP) was created to help educate the American people about important changes being proposed across the nation on how we deliver electricity to homes, schools, businesses, hospitals and everywhere else.
Why did we start this group?
Consumer Fraud
Business interests that stand to make massive profits by deregulating the electricity industry, are spending large sums of money to convince consumers, politicians and news media that competition in the electricity market place will reduce the cost of power and speed the pace of adapting clean energy production from sources like wind and solar. However, in reality, when cities and states deregulate their electricity markets, ratepayers often find themselves paying higher electric bills and ending up the victims of scams falsely promising clean energy for lower costs.
Higher Rates
Some cities are frustrated by a lack of control over their utility and want more options for their citizens. This has led some to believe that the answer lies in municipalization, a process by which the city buys the utility's assets. ACSEP will inform Americans about the potential pitfalls associated with municipalization to help them avoid making costly mistakes. Taking lessons learned from well-meaning jurisdictions we will explain the process of buying the utilities’ equipment, challenges to City government's access to capital for infrastructure improvements, and how local governments have used the city utility for a new tax revenue stream.
Ike Brannon
Ike Brannon is currently president of Capital Policy Analytics, a consulting firm in Washington DC as well as the co-head of the Prosperity Caucus, a prominent monthly meeting of economists, staffers and other policy professionals that began more than 30 years ago as an offshoot of Jack Kemp’s 1988 presidential campaign. Today, he is a senior fellow at The Jack Kemp Foundation.
Brannon was previously a Senior nonresident fellow at the Cato Institute, and before that had spent a decade in government, working for the Joint Economic Committee, Senate Finance Committee, the Republican Policy Committee, and the House Energy and Commerce Committee, as well as the Office of Management and Budget and the U.S. Treasury. He was also senior economist for John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign.
Brannon was born and raised in Mossville, Illinois, and graduated from Augustana College and Indiana University.
Casey DeMoss
Casey DeMoss has dedicated her career to creating a sustainable, more equitable world. From her work in the United States Peace Corps to being the Executive Director for the Alliance for Affordable Energy she has spent her career working to solve human health, economic, and environmental justice problems.
Ms. DeMoss is a progressive energy policy leader and her work has appeared in RealClear Politics, RealClear Energy, Utility Dive, The Advocate, and E&E News as well as on National Public Radio. She is a highly sought-after speaker following her successful TEDtalk at the TEDxOilSpill conference. Ms. DeMoss co-created and hosted a weekly news radio program on WTUL New Orleans and serves on the Denton’s Smart Cities Think Tank. She is currently writing a book on energy policy.
Ms. DeMoss has an MSPH in Biostatistics from Tulane University and a BA in Psychology from the University of Texas.