AUGUSTA, Maine - With the Build Back Better Act expected to see a vote in the U.S. House this week, some Mainers are reminding their elected officials that climate change is a top priority.

The spending package before Congress would invest about $550 billion to cut the country's carbon emissions. With the state seeing increased flooding, as well as smoke all the way from wildfires out West, said Jack Shapiro, climate and clean-energy program director for the Natural Resources Council of Maine, Build Back Better is crucial for Mainers.

"It delivers rebates and savings for families as they shift to electrification and more efficient appliances, like heat pumps, water heaters, windows and doors," he said, "and we're seeing how volatile and unreliable fossil fuel prices can be."

Residents last weekend gathered at U.S. Rep. Jared Golden's offices to urge the Maine Democrat to vote for the spending package, but his office has said he needs more time to review it and isn't yet ready to support the bill. Golden and a handful of other Democrats have thus far joined Republicans in opposing the bill.

Shapiro noted that in addition to lowering prices for renewable energy and speeding up the transition away from fossil fuels, Build Back Better includes incentives for folks to switch to energy-efficient appliances, retrofit their homes or buy electric vehicles.

"This can make a big difference for rural drivers in Maine, who have to drive further to get to the store or to the doctor," he said. "So, savings like this are a really big deal."

He added that coming out of the COP26 international climate change conference in Scotland, it's important for the United States to do its part at the federal, state and local levels. He said the infrastructure bill that President Joe Biden signed on Monday makes strides, but added that he thinks Build Back Better also is needed to meet the nation's goals.

By Bryce Oates for Resource Rural.
Broadcast version by Mike Moen for Minnesota News Connection reporting for the Resource Rural-Public News Service Collaboration

At the end of each growing season, Grand Rapids, Minnesota berry farmer Stuart Lavalier is ready for cold weather to set in, exhausted from the long hours and hard work required to grow high-quality strawberries, blueberries, cherries, and apples for local customers.

Lavalier uses the off-season to rest and recuperate, finding that, “somehow over a mostly, restful winter, the excitement of another year comes back like the first warm day of spring.”

The berry grower added an additional crop recently to his family’s farm when he installed a 27.3 kW solar array. In its first year of operations, the financial benefits are clear.

“We’re seeing a negative number on our electric bill,” Lavalier said. “We don’t have a huge electricity bill but the solar covers it. . . .We’ve been getting a check back each month of about $300.” 

Lavalier’s decision to add solar to his farm began a decade ago while attending a statewide growers conference. He went in thinking about finding solutions for the usual farm production challenges in the Upper Midwest: drought, insect and pest damage, changing weather patterns, hail, wind, and more. 

But along with valuable production-oriented information from the conference, he was inspired by a fellow berry grower to consider a different set of issues related to his farm’s future: the option of installing solar panels.

“That grower talked about how he wanted to give back, to do what’s right, to grow more on the farm than just berries,” Lavalier said. “People at that time were saying you’re never going to get your back, you’re never going to get the payback. But he said I want to make a difference. He talked about how we need to be thinking about the future. I thought that was a good answer.”

Doing something positive for the future spoke to Lavalier, who spent 32 years teaching elementary students. Installing a solar array didn’t just impact the farm’s bottom line: it provided a way for his operation to be more self-reliant. After seeing the benefit over time, he got involved with the Iron Range Solar Co-op, organized locally by Solar United Neighbors. 

When he learned about a potential federal grant that could help cover 25-50% of solar array costs, Lavalier decided the time was right to go forward. Through the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Energy for America Program (REAP), farmers and rural small businesses like Lavalier can receive grants and loans to support clean energy systems and energy efficiency projects. 

Lavalier was awarded a REAP grant for his solar project, providing a substantial financial incentive to help meet his values for local, non polluting, decentralized energy production. “Once I knew I wanted to get solar on our farm, I found out about the REAP grant,” Lavalier said. “It made a difference. It made me feel comfortable going ahead, because then I knew I had that additional support to make it work.”

Lavalier, who received critical grant application and installation assistance from the local business Real Solar, hopes that his participation in REAP could help other people apply to the program. “Go ahead and go for it. There are great rebates and incentives. I’m looking forward to getting an EV (electric vehicle),” Lavalier said. 

The berry farmer’s only regret is that he didn’t maximize the size of his solar array.
“I kind of wish we would have went bigger,” Lavalier said.


Bryce Oates wrote this article for Resource Rural.


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Nevada leaders have announced a new calculator that will help homeowners and renters determine how much they can save by tapping into electrification incentives.

Kristee Watson, executive director with the Nevada Conservation League, explained that the tool is a "collaborative approach" to ensure Nevadans are able to save money and decrease reliance on fossil fuels. She said earlier this year her nonprofit went knocking door to door in Clark and Washoe counties and had conversations about Rewiring America's energy-efficient upgrade savings calculator with more than 25,000 Nevadans. She called it a game changer.

"We see it as our job to make sure that we are going out and educating people about how they can save money and drive down their energy usage, and this Rewiring America tool makes that easier," she explained.

She said while there is a push to ensure lower-income Nevadans are also able to reap the benefits and funds made available through the Inflation Reduction Act, there are programs with less stringent income requirements, or none at all. You can find the incentive calculator at 'homes.rewiringamerica.org.'

Watson said as more Nevadans decide to make their homes more energy efficient, it'll take less energy to cool and heat them, meaning decreased levels of fossil fuels, which negatively impact the environment and public health. She added that the available incentives, rebates and tax credits will help folks save money now and in the future.

"We can tell people all day long, but sending them to an IRS website is a really negative experience and that is what we want to avoid. We want people to be making decisions that are going to protect air quality and health, but we want to do it in an easy way - a consumer friendly way," she said.

Rep. Susie Lee, D-Nev., said she is proud to have helped pass the Inflation Reduction Act and bring federal dollars to southern Nevada communities who are on the front lines of what she calls the climate crisis. She added that the federal investments are creating jobs as well as advancing a resilient clean-energy economy.

"$14 billion in outside investment in clean energy projects in our state alone, that means 20,000 new jobs in our state with a projection of up to 40,000 new jobs over the next 10 years," she explained.

Ohio will receive more than $32 million in federal funding to help revive auto manufacturing and jobs in the state, specifically electric vehicle production at a plant in Toledo.

U.S. vehicle manufacturing has been on the decline since the 1970s, but the Biden administration is providing $1.7 billion in grants from the Inflation Reduction Act to help convert nearly a dozen manufacturing facilities on the cusp of closing into EV producers.

Anne Blair, vice president of policy for the nonprofit Electrification Coalition, said the projects will collectively create more than 2,900 new, skilled jobs and help ensure more than 15,000 union workers are employed in eight states.

"We're excited to see the Biden administration investing in domestic manufacturing of EVs," Blair pointed out. "This funding will create good-paying American jobs and give consumers and businesses more vehicle choices."

Around four in 10 Americans said they are "very or somewhat likely" to consider an electric vehicle as their next car purchase, according to a 2023 Pew Research Center survey. Opponents of EVs argued they are expensive, and said people are not buying enough of them to warrant more production.

Blair believes the nation's continued heavy reliance on fossil fuels leaves it increasingly vulnerable to foreign influence and the whim of global markets.

"For a century, oil has had a monopoly on our transportation, which has led to dire national security risks," Blair asserted. "Electric vehicles are a critical alternative to the dangers of our oil dependency."

The U.S. is among the largest consumers of oil in the world; in 2022, the Americans used an average of around 20 million barrels of petroleum per day, according to federal data.


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