The Grid Has Eyes

There is a particular kind of dread that comes from learning the infrastructure you depend on is also watching you. Alabama Power's deployment of Flock cameras across Birmingham is not a side note to the climate story — it is central to it. The same corporate entity that sets your electric rates, shapes the state's renewable energy policy, and negotiates its own pollution limits is now building a surveillance network with the capacity to log every license plate in the city. This is the "Wired for Profit" series at its most essential: exposing how concentrated power operates in the Yellowhammer State. The climate angle here is sharper than it first appears. The energy transition is not just a technological shift; it is a battle over who controls the systems that sustain daily life. A utility that can surveil its own customers holds a weapon against the very communities most likely to organize for change — the ones fighting rate hikes, demanding solar access, or protesting coal ash contamination. When the grid has eyes, the chilling effect on activism is real. Who will file a complaint with the public utilities commission if they know the utility's cameras logged their car outside a protest? We must also consider the precedent. Across the country, utilities are building "smart" infrastructure — advanced meters, grid sensors, EV charging networks — all of which generate torrents of data. The Alabama Power case is a warning that this data can be repurposed for policing and corporate advantage without meaningful community consent. Flock cameras are marketed for public safety, but their integration into a monopoly utility's operations blurs the line between serving the public and surveilling it. What gives me some hope is the resistance. DeFlock Birmingham, led by Darrell Nance, represents a growing recognition that privacy is an environmental justice issue. The fight against surveillance cameras is a fight for the right to assemble, to dissent, and to demand accountability — all of which are prerequisites for a functioning democracy and a livable planet. As this series from Inside Climate News makes clear, we cannot decarbonize our economy if we cannot first democratize