“Hello America!  You’re tuned to ‘Straight Talk’ our weekly look at what real Americans across the land are doing to keep our country strong.  I’m your host, Pat Ree-Ahtick here with reporter, Cher Da’Newws, covering recent innovations.  What have you learned this week in your travels across our great country, Cher?”

        “Pat, you won’t be surprised that farmers are some of our greatest innovators.  A group of these forward-looking folks are ramping up their conservation and regenerative farming practices.  In doing so, they’ve kept more than a million metric tons of carbon in the ground where it enriches the soil instead of polluting the atmosphere.  The Truterra company works with businesses that are racing to meet their climate pledges, so they’ve supported these conservation-minded farmers with average payouts of $20,000 apiece.  

        “Meanwhile in Texas, the Base Power company has a plan to help stabilize the volatile Texas grid.  It sells rooftop solar customers oversized home batteries at minimal costs.  Then it utilizes the excess storage capacity to back-up renewable energy sources.  Base Power trades any excess energy on the market.  Home-grown energy from hometown heroes!

       “Speaking of batteries, some folks worry about what we’ll do with used electric vehicle (EV) batteries.  Ascend Elements has an answer.  It recycles 30,000 metric tons, about 70,000 EV batteries, every year.  Their process recovers approximately 98% of the essential metals in each battery.  It’s a great example of the ‘circular economy,’ a system where materials never become waste and nature is regenerated.

        “Wisconsinites are also contributing to innovations in clean energy by employing more than 71,000 people with good-paying renewable energy jobs.  Over 11% are veterans and 69% of Wisconsin’s clean energy sector is made up of small businesses.  These career opportunities continue to expand thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) funding and extra incentives for American-made products.
       
        “But you know Pat, the most gratifying thing is meeting the every-day heroes across this great land.  They’re the Americans who don’t let partisan politics distract them from the fact that ALL Americans strive for the same goals of freedom, good health, prosperity and a safe and secure future for our children.”

        “By God you’re right Cher.  True patriots work together to achieve those goals. After all, we’re all neighbors on this small speck in the universe.  This is the only home we’ll ever know because we’re all forever… Earthbound.”

         “I still say this clean energy thing is mostly a bunch of hooey,” groused Ima Douter.
 
      “As they say, ‘You’re entitled to your own opinions, but facts are facts,’” Wanda Know replied. “The lady at Mythconceptions Busters sure cleared up a lot of questions for me.  You should go see her.”  “OK, OK, I’ll go see for myself!” Ima huffed. 

        Later at the store – As Ima stepped inside she felt strangely lighter, as if her unconscious biases had floated away.  “Er…my friend said you might have some answers,”  Ima said to the counter attendant. “For example, is it true that solar farms can only survive with the help of subsidies?”

         The woman smiled and typed in the question.  Behind her, the huge console blinked, whirred and then spit out a document. “Myth,” Ann Serrs read. “That’s because photovoltaic solar power is the cheapest source of new electricity generation in most parts of the world.  On average, gas-generated power costs about 20% more and coal-generated electricity is twice as expensive.”

         “What about wind turbines?  Doesn’t energy to manufacture, install and maintain them release tons of emissions?” Ima wondered.  A few seconds later – “Myth,” Ann announced. “The average lifecycle emissions of wind energy production is roughly 1/77th that of coal.  Actually, most of those emissions (90%) come from transporting the turbine components.”

         “Even so, we’d need turbines all over the place to get the same amount of energy as a few good-old coal plants, right?” asked Ima. “Another myth.  To reach net-zero emissions by 2050 turbines would need a direct footprint of between .6 million and 2.4 million acres. Not much compared to the 4.4 million acres currently used for natural gas extraction and the 3.5 million acres for oil extraction,” Ann read.

         “Yeah, but what about all the fossil fuel jobs we’ll lose.  Isn’t that a problem?” Ima asked. “Yet another myth,” Ann replied after checking the printout. “Estimates are that a net-zero emissions economy by 2050 would create 6 million jobs and cut just 1 million fossil fuel jobs.”

         “Wow!  A bunch of us have kinda ‘myth-ed out’ on the truth about this stuff,” Ima quipped. “But it’s no joke.  We’ve got to dump the myths and get the facts about caring for our only home because we’re all forever… Earthbound.”

         *Resource - 2024 Sabin Center for Climate Change Law, Columbia Law School