A Renewable Rural America

By by Luke Gannon and Reggie Rucker - Institute for Local Self-Reliance, October 20, 2022

“The climate movement, by and large, has overlooked rural America,” Josh Ewing, Director of the Rural Climate Partnership, argues on this episode of Building Local Power. Yet, America’s rural economies are expected to be the hardest hit by climate change. What accounts for this disconnect?

Josh makes the case that rural communities are plagued by misinformation. Monopolistic companies and corporate interests are spending huge sums to dissuade people from embracing clean energy, especially across the rural United States, which has historically been heavily reliant on oil, gas, and coal. The profit motive of these corporations is harming the real opportunity in rural America to transition to clean energy.

But Josh is clear-eyed in his mission. Given the degree to which gasoline super-users, the climate-sensitive agricultural economy, and the future of clean energy infrastructure reside in rural America, it is imperative that rural communities sit at the center of our climate policies and that politics get left aside. This transition to clean energy is an economic necessity, and communities of all political stripes must embrace this transition for the sake of generational survival.

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are not the official position of the IWW (or even the IWW’s EUC) and do not necessarily represent the views of anyone but the author.