The challenges and opportunities of clean energy in rural America

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The U.S. energy transition runs through rural America: As of last year, 87% of U.S. clean energy generation happened in areas far outside the country’s urban centers, per a Rural Climate Partnership analysis. That makes sense — wind, solar, and battery installations need a lot of open land.

But not everyone is welcoming new clean energy development with open arms. The number of counties with some kind of ban, moratorium, or barrier on renewable energy projects is growing nationwide. More than 60% of the counties that have such restrictions are rural, according to a Daily Yonder and Canary Media analysis of data from USA Today and the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University.

Meanwhile, at the federal level, rural clean energy development is under attack. The Trump administration has gutted the Rural Energy for America Program, which for more than a decade helped farmers pay for solar panels that slashed their power bills. U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins has crusaded against ​“subsidizing solar projects on prime farmland,” and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum has painted wind and solar as ​“environmentally damaging” and an inefficient use of land.

In reality, despite being by far the fastest-growing energy source in America, utility-scale solar takes up just 0.07% of the country’s farmland. The footprint of golf courses is almost three times bigger.

And these opponents miss — or ignore — an even more important point. Clean energy projects present a massive opportunity for rural America. By bringing in new tax dollars, they can be an economic lifeline for struggling rural communities as well as for farmers, who can earn a profit leasing their land to counter soaring operating costs and the impacts of climate change.

Many people in rural communities know this. Half of all Americans support solar and wind projects in their area, according to an April survey by the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication. Jeff Hough, a Republican county commissioner in Idaho, is one of them. He’s organizing to overturn a ban on solar and wind that he helped put into place a few short years ago. Dorothy Macy, a resident of Coles County, Illinois, is another. She spoke out in favor of a 300-megawatt wind development in her area that’s expected to generate $81 million in taxes over its 30-year lifetime.

The benefits of clean energy development bridge ideological divides. That’s a point Republican Tim Pawlenty made onstage at Canary Media’s Climate Week NYC summit on the energy transition in rural America.

A former two-term governor of Minnesota and now head of the Solar Energy Industry Association, Pawlenty is committed to building enduring bipartisan support for clean energy policies. In particular, he believes the solar industry can position itself as a defender of private property rights, advocating for letting farmers develop their own land as they see fit.

“I’m from a farm state — I’ve spent a lot of time in farm areas and with farmers,” he said. ​“From a conservative standpoint, land rights are pretty important.” 

More big energy stories

A federal windfall for advanced grid technology

For more than a year and a half now, the Trump administration has been systemically dismantling as many Biden-era energy policies as it can (and a bunch that it can’t, at least not legally). Jeff St. John reports, however, that Thursday brought us a rare moment of alignment between the two administrations with the announcement that the U.S. Department of Energy is awarding $1.9 billion in grants to support deployment of advanced transmission technologies in 26 states.

Why advanced transmission technologies? Because building new grid infrastructure is difficult, rife with financial, regulatory, and logistical challenges. Advanced transmission technologies mitigate this problem with devices, strategies, software solutions, and materials that can help squeeze more out of the existing overburdened grid.

The grant-winning projects, for example, include plans to replace transmission cables with higher-conductivity versions that can carry more energy, as well as to add devices and software that can route power more intelligently around the grid.

Fighting for the future of offshore wind

Last week, we reported that Revolution Wind, off the Rhode Island coast, completed installation of all 65 of its turbines, and will soon join South Fork Wind and Vineyard Wind in commercial operations. Empire Wind and Sunrise Wind are both in progress off New York.

This week, Maria Gallucci tells us, nine states took steps to preserve the momentum. A coalition of eight eastern states filed a lawsuit attempting to block two deals in which the U.S. Department of the Interior agreed to pay out almost $4 billion to developers who gave up their offshore wind leases. California is pushing its own suit. These legal challenges come on top of cases filed earlier this year against what California Attorney General Rob Bonta called the ​“blatantly unlawful” buyout plans.

Meanwhile, the case for offshore remains strong. It showed up big during winter storms, helped stave off power outages during a New England heat wave this summer, and could have important national security implications.

Clean energy news to know this week

Solar for All reinstated: A Trump-appointed judge rules that the administration acted illegally when it terminated the $7 billion Solar for All program meant to support solar projects serving lower-income communities. (Canary Media)

Electric school buses hit NYC: Fifty new plug-in electric school buses in New York City are slated to transport students and store energy to share with the grid. (Canary Media)

New York’s big battery battle: New York utility Con Edison and battery developers are locked in conflict over how community-scale storage projects should be managed and who should reap the financial benefits. (Canary Media)

Cleaner cooking: Induction-stove startup Copper partners with appliance giant Miele to produce a more versatile and powerful version of its superefficient, fume-free range. (Canary Media)

Solar set free: After years of delay, Ohio regulators green-light a project that will be the state’s largest solar and battery installation — and provide grazing land for some 1,000 sheep. (Canary Media)

Dirtier than ever: Many major U.S. utilities are making less progress cleaning up their power supply than in past years, with several taking steps backward, the Sierra Club’s annual report finds. (Canary Media)

Gas plant sidelined: North Carolina regulators reject plans for a gas-fired power plant, saying the risk to consumers is too great when it’s unclear if data center demand will actually surge in coming years. (Canary Media)