Utility resistance and misaligned incentives: Investor-owned utilities (IOUs) prioritize shareholder profits and large-scale transmission projects that generate returns, while resisting or delaying distributed solutions such as rooftop solar, community solar, microgrids, and battery storage. They have little incentive to value or compensate distributed energy resources, undervalue battery reserves, and often oppose regulatory changes that would enable local or community-driven resilience. As a result, local governments, tribes, and communities face persistent legal, procedural, and financial hurdles in advancing decentralized clean energy solutions.