{"id":626500,"date":"2026-09-24T23:18:49","date_gmt":"2026-09-24T23:18:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/626500\/"},"modified":"2026-09-24T23:18:49","modified_gmt":"2026-09-24T23:18:49","slug":"how-to-stick-up-for-renewable-energy-projects-near-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/626500\/","title":{"rendered":"How to stick up for renewable energy projects near you"},"content":{"rendered":"

Canary Media\u2019s Electrified Life<\/a> column shares real-world tales, tips, and insights to demystify what individuals can do to shift their homes and communities to clean electric power.<\/p>\n

Last year, Coles County, Illinois was debating whether to kill a\u00a0proposed wind farm. Dorothy Macy wanted to speak up in support of the project \u2014 but she had serious self-doubts.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018There are people better than me, \u2026 people that can speak to county boards, and they\u2019re good at it,\u2019\u201d Macy recalled thinking at the time. \u200b\u201cBut I\u00a0care. I\u00a0decided, \u200b\u2018I can do\u00a0this.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

So Macy, a\u00a0retired educator who has called the area home for 30\u00a0years, pushed aside her nerves and teamed up with about a\u00a0dozen others to advocate for the roughly 300-megawatt development. Last July, at a\u00a0public hearing, she asked the county board to approve the special permit for Coles\u00a0Wind.<\/p>\n

Macy reminded the officials as well as several community opponents in the audience that the wind farm would deliver a\u00a0windfall. Over the project\u2019s 30-year lifespan, developer Apex Clean Energy expects it to generate over $81 million in taxes<\/a>, including more than $43 million for school districts.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is [a] new revenue source that will provide money for our Charleston public schools,\u201d Macy, whose own children went through that school system, said in her testimony. \u200b\u201cAnd it will keep my taxes\u00a0down.\u201d<\/p>\n

Macy\u2019s voice may have helped get Coles Wind across the finish line. Shortly after the public hearing, the county board voted 6\u20135 to approve the project permit.<\/p>\n

A few months later, Macy showed up again before the county board to support the 210-MW Glacier Moraine Solar project. After initially shooting down the permit<\/a>, the board made a\u00a0U-turn in October. Both the wind and solar projects are now under construction.<\/p>\n

Macy got out of her comfort zone to voice support for clean energy in her community. As opposition to solar, wind, and battery projects grows in pockets across the United States, that kind of determination matters more than\u00a0ever.<\/p>\n

Why stand up for clean energy in your community<\/p>\n

Local permitting is the biggest bottleneck to reducing planet-heating emissions from the power sector, said Matt Traldi, founder and CEO of the nonprofit Greenlight America<\/a>, which galvanizes grassroots support for clean energy projects. Nearly one in four counties in the U.S. restrict<\/a> renewables development. And disinformation<\/a> on how they impact farmland, human health, wildlife, and more spreads<\/a> on social media, stoking fears in rural communities, where the majority of these projects get proposed.<\/p>\n

Although carbon-free energy is necessary to avert the worst of the climate crisis, that motivation often isn\u2019t what\u2019s driving decision-makers. \u200b\u201cLocal governments are not deciding \u200b\u2018Is climate change real?\u2019 And they\u2019re not even deciding \u200b\u2018Is clean energy good?\u2019\u201d Traldi said. \u200b\u201cThey\u2019re deciding \u200b\u2018Should we build this thing here?\u2019\u201d And that calculus, he notes, is based on \u200b\u201cWhat do our constituents want? And will I\u00a0get reelected if I\u00a0say yes to\u00a0this?\u201d<\/p>\n

Roughly half of Americans support<\/a> solar and wind projects in their area, according to an April survey by the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication. But opponents are typically the loudest voices in the room. And while the opposition knows it needs to organize if it wants to stop a\u00a0project<\/a>, Traldi said, supporters are often unaware that if they don\u2019t show up, clean energy loses by forfeit.<\/p>\n

Just a\u00a0few individuals turning up at hearings can tip the scales in favor of renewables, Traldi noted: Five or 10 people can take a\u00a0project from \u200b\u201cpolitical suicide\u201d to something that could \u200b\u201csail through.\u201d<\/p>\n

Advocating for local renewables is also one of the biggest opportunities for climate action that an individual can take. Greenlight America calculated that a\u00a0270-MW solar project is the emissions equivalent of taking 44,000 gas-powered cars off the\u00a0road.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou might think one of the biggest decisions you can make is switching to an EV,\u201d Traldi said. If you\u2019re one of five people that tip the scales at a\u00a0hearing, \u200b\u201cit\u2019s like you do that almost 10,000 times.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ready to boost renewables in your community? Here\u2019s some expert advice.<\/p>\n

Keep an ear to the ground for proposed solar, wind, and battery projects.<\/p>\n

You might hear about a\u00a0clean energy proposal in the local newspaper, on the TV or radio, at the library, or on a\u00a0city or county website. Or it may be all your neighbors can talk about, in person or online in local Facebook groups and Nextdoor posts. Especially important is to look for when there will be hearings where you can advocate for a\u00a0project.<\/p>\n

Find or create a\u00a0pro-renewables posse.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Macy in Coles County didn\u2019t go it alone. She was already in touch with local organizer Cindy Shepherd, green team director at the environmental organization Faith in Place, who encouraged Macy to speak up for the wind and solar farm projects.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Canary Media\u2019s Electrified Life column shares real-world tales, tips, and insights to demystify what individuals can do to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":626501,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[242,85,46,141],"class_list":["post-626500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626500","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=626500"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626500\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/626501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=626500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=626500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=626500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}