Complex Numbers

Powerless

Throwing shade on solar power...

    An activist group is spreading misinformation to stop solar projects in rural America  

Hm, I wonder who would be motivated enough to fund such a group... let me think... nope, coming up empty.

Citizens for Responsible Solar is part of a growing backlash against renewable energy in rural communities across the United States.

It's important, when fighting against things that are net social goods, to use certain keywords to make people believe that you're not evil. It worked for various "democratic people's republic" dictatorships. "Family" is a perennial favorite. Or "children." But "responsible" and "citizens" are up there.

Citizens for Responsible Solar was founded in an exurb of Washington, D.C., by a longtime political operative named Susan Ralston who worked in the White House under President George W. Bush and still has deep ties to power players in conservative politics.

See? Evil.

And when Ralston was launching the group, a consulting firm she owns got hundreds of thousands of dollars from the foundation of a leading GOP donor who is also a major investor in fossil fuel companies.

Oh, wow. Wow. I never would have guessed, not in a million years.

Analysts who follow the industry say Citizens for Responsible Solar stokes opposition to solar projects by spreading misinformation online about health and environmental risks. The group's website says solar requires too much land for "unreliable energy," ignoring data showing power grids can run dependably on lots of renewables. And it claims large solar projects in rural areas wreck the land and contribute to climate change, despite evidence to the contrary.

Evidence? Who needs evidence when you have money?

And you know what form of energy has well-documented, proven health and environmental risks? I'll give you a hint: it rhymes with ossil uels.

People often have valid concerns about solar development. Like any infrastructure project, solar plants that are poorly planned and constructed can potentially harm communities. But misinformation spread by groups like Citizens for Responsible Solar is turning rural landowners unfairly against renewables, says Skyler Zunk, an Interior Department official under President Donald Trump and chief executive of Energy Right, a conservative-leaning nonprofit that supports solar projects that preserve ecosystems.

Any change in land use comes with potential hazards to the environment. Change the way runoff works, and you change erosion patterns and a watershed's hydrological characteristics. But there are ways to mitigate that.

Solar restrictions are gaining traction as the stakes for addressing climate change keep rising. Construction of more renewable energy is key to the country's plans to cut greenhouse gas pollution and avoid the worst damage from extreme weather in the years ahead.

Such is the nature of humanity that avoiding "the worst damage from extreme weather in the years ahead" will mean absolutely nothing, because the damage has been avoided. Kind of like people scoff at the giant nothing that was the Y2K problem, because they didn't notice efforts to keep it from happening.

Ralston reportedly said to E&E News in 2019 that no money from fossil fuel interests went to Citizens for Responsible Solar. Since then, she has declined NPR and Floodlight's requests to identify the organization's sources of funding.

I thought "why not tell the whole truth if you have nothing to hide" was a core conservative "value."

Many grassroots activists today credit their success in stopping solar projects to Ralston. One of them is Kathy Webb. Webb says she learned that a company wanted to clear a forest for a solar plant near her home in Rowan County, N.C., days before local officials planned to vote.

I gotta admit, I'm not sure that clear-cutting forests for solar energy is a net positive. Trees are kinda important for carbon capture. But I don't have any real data one way or the other.

Misinformation spreads easily online. It bounces around in echo chambers where dubious articles, videos and memes are posted and shared repeatedly. Longtime critics of the wind industry like John Droz cultivated opposition strategies that are now being used in the fight against solar, says Anderson, the renewable energy lawyer in Kansas.

And really, my point here isn't to rag on one group or another. I want to see decisions based on facts, not misinformation (or deliberate disinformation). Lots of people on both sides of the US political spectrum bang on about questionable or outright disproven studies or statements.

Every form of energy creation has its downsides. The question is whether the benefits outweigh them or not.

But, you know. Keep promoting coal and oil if you need to. By the time it all runs out and we can no longer sustain an industrial, technological society, I, too, will be long gone.

Sucks for your descendants, though.