How fossil fuel companies keep your energy costs high | Jon Powers

Solar and storage are among the fastest and cheapest ways to add electricity to the grid, Jon Powers says, and together supplied 70% of the new electricity added last year. He argues that expanding supply can help lower costs as data centers increase electricity demand and bills. In his account, fossil fuel interests oppose clean energy because it threatens their bottom line, and efforts to block new projects can constrain the additions needed to meet rising demand.

Powers says fossil fuel interests fund hyper-local disinformation portraying solar as a cause of higher utility bills, water contamination, or wildlife deaths; he calls those claims false and says anti-solar lawn signs are mostly fossil-fuel-funded. He contrasts clean energy’s employment, which he says is three times that of fossil fuels, with the political spending imbalance: fossil fuel interests outspend clean energy 27 to 1, excluding spending that is not tracked. The financial and political disparity, he argues, helps explain why local opposition can be well organized even as clean energy grows.

Restrictions are already shaping where projects can be built. Powers says one in four U.S. counties restricts solar or wind construction, and 120 New York towns have enacted moratoriums or bans on energy storage. He cautions against treating every local objection as hostility to renewables: officials may be trying to protect their communities and understand unfamiliar technology. Towns typically give the industry about 180 days after imposing a moratorium to respond, creating a short window to answer concerns and establish sound permitting practices.

Powers calls for a rapid-response “war room” linking developers, clean-energy advocates, and pro-development environmental groups. In New York, the developer- and philanthropy-funded Energy Resilience Coalition gathers project concerns and coordinates responses, bringing local organizations and trusted messengers into town discussions. One partner trains firefighters to meet volunteer fire chiefs, explain battery-storage technology, and help prepare emergency response plans. The coalition is raising money to train and deploy more firefighters, while another partner helps town permitting teams apply best practices to storage projects.

The coalition’s approach relies on people residents already know, including firefighters and farmers, to explain how projects may affect their communities. At a rural New York music festival, a farmer described solar as a way to keep his farm in the family; pumpkins and other crops grew beneath the panels for local sale. Powers also points to the growth of domestic manufacturing: the United States rose from 14th to 3rd globally in solar-module manufacturing over the last few years, and solar now powers more than 50 million American homes. He expects the dispute over clean energy to be decided town by town, with local choices helping determine whether the future brings more clean, affordable energy.