Independent Lens

We have set here and watched ou r farms deteriorate. We've watched our kids leave, and solar, it could help us down here. Solar power is a proven job creator and it lessens our dependence on fossil fuels. What's preventing everybody from having this? This is a big threat. With electricity in most of the country, you really only have one choice. They want to stop competition from solar. They're one of the more powerful lobbying organizations. - Why should some company get a monopoly on that? It's obscene. I'm not the only one in the South that's a Conservative that loves solar. But there's a economic and health justice issue embedded in not having access to solar. "Jonathan Scott's Power Trip." Now only on Independent Lens.

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What's up, big guy?

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The day I did my solar install, I remember thinking, "M an, I have never seen this many smiling faces on a construction site," and I've been on a lot of them. Hey. - Hey, no worries, thank you. Appreciate this. - Yeah. Come on. Just stack it. You could tell these were people who were working for more than just a paycheck. There was an energy and an enthusiasm to them like they knew their work wa s making a difference. Ha ha ha ha. I went into it with sheer op timism and excitement. Okay, you guys have been busy up here. You can put me to work. Yeah? - Whatever you need. I couldn't believe how energized I was. Thank you. It's so funny, 'cause when I was a kid I had the calculator that had just the little, tiny photovoltaic cell, and that's what powered the calculator, and I said to Mom, I'm like, "Why don't we power everything with this?" And she said, "Well, you can't, not something that big." This is gonna be a great th ing, so very excited. What was impossible when I was a kid is possible now. My whole house is being powered off of these, so it's like, "What's preventing everybody from having this?" I had visions of solar panels on every roof in the country, but within days, I realized my personal solar journey would become the story of an entire system built to keep us from having a choice in the way we power our lives. My name is Jonathan Scott. Some of you may know me as the taller, more handsome half of TV's ho me renovation heroes, the "Property Brothers." Some of you might not know me at all, and that's fine, but you're here, so sit back and relax while I tell you my solar story. For 10 years, my brother and I have traveled the country turning disaster houses into dream homes. Jonathan and Drew! - The Property Brothers! Please welcome Drew and Jonathan Scott. If all that renovation ha s taught me anything, it's that people use a lot of power. From the moment we climb out of bed, we're connected to a world fed by endless amounts of energy. I'm always trying to find ways to help homeowners save money, and I quickly realized that the booming solar industry might have the perfect solution. Solar energy is the wave of the future. Solar is growing faster than most industries across the country. Solar energy is becoming more and more popular and more affordable. - All right. So I decided to try it myself. It's just so simple. In less than a day, my roof was covered in panels, and I immediately saw my energy bills plummet. I was creating so much energy, I could actually make money off that giant ball of gas th at shows up every day, but as soon as I started to soak up the sun, my hopes were smashed. Someone somewhere was not only killing my solar dreams, but they were making money selling the energy I paid to produce. Sadly, like millions of solar users, I faced the harsh reality that when it comes to choosing how we power our lives and truly having energy freedom, this country has a long, long, long way to go.

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The folks here in our valley are fuming over the latest change with solar rates. Many in the solar industry say the deck is stacked against them.

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We want freedom! Just like me, thousands of Nevadans were outraged that somebody else wa s making money off the solar energy we pay to produce. We want them to see just how many people care about solar and energy freedom. Solar customers in Nevada now blasting the state's decision to phase out net metering, the incentive program that reimbursed residential customers at retail rates for excess power generated by their rooftop panels. In 2016, the Nevada Public Utilities Commission, or PUC, rolled back a program that made solar power a financially viable option for thousands of solar customers. So you're a homeowner that's decided to make solar power your choice for energy generation. Every day, you harness th e sun to create power. Any of that power you don't use goes back into the electrical grid, and with net metering, you receive a credit for that excess power, which reduces your bill. Dr. Sullivan interview. Mark. Years ago, the price for producing solar energy was through the roof. Only environmental fanatics would think about investing in solar energy. It rises like a mythical mushroom out of the pines and palmettos of South Dade. Is it a home for a Hobbit or a druid convention hall? Solar panels are an integral part of the home. The future could very well lo ok like this. It really wasn't profitable. They were doing this because they were the kind of bearded, excuse me, California types. They figured, "Solar energy is just cool, "and I'm going to do this because I'm going to thumb my nose at the oil guys," right? But when net metering started, you could actually bring your bill to zero... nothing--zero. Solar power is getting cheaper and cheaper, which means the way you get electricity, it could ostensibly change forever. We have a chart that shows how solar power is going to overshadow existing coal and gas plants. Net metering laws are a part of the fuel that fired up demand for solar panels. The number of houses producing solar in states where net metering was in place skyrocketed. Some people in areas drenched with sun were zeroing out their bills and making a profit from the solar cells on their roofs. Utilities are losing money because now you and your house have control over what electricity you use and from where. With billions at stake, utilities were fighting back. We want freedom! We want freedom! We want freedom! This is turning into a very serious, heated debate. There were so many people at today's meeting, some of them had to wait in the hall for their turn to speak. Existing customers are now being subjected to unfair new tariffs that will make our large investments worthless.

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Thank you. Thank you. Maybe we need to organize ourself and vote you out. Yeah! - Yeah!

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Yeah, Tricia, it was 5 hours of public comment, but just about 5, 10 minutes ago, the PUC voted to uphold the solar rate hike. The actions you're taking today are taking from the mouths of the people and giving it to a single monopoly utility!

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You're stealing from the people and giving to the rich! You're like the anti-Robin Hoods! Yeah!

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So who is winning the fight ag ainst energy freedom? Believe it or not, the biggest winners, as a group, are utilities. Ye s, utilities. When most people think of public utilities, we imagine no nprofit organizations built to benefit yo ur community. Because Nevada is our home, and we want what you want. Well, nothing could be fu rther from the truth. You like utilities? I love utilities. Last year, we were up about 21% in our utilities sector. Utilities are sexy right now, up 30% in the last 12 months. Virtually all utilities are private companies, and they are definitely built for profit. I see the only guy who's buying utilities is Buffett. Warren Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway, will buy Nevada's largest utility company, NV Energy, for $5.6 billion. All over the US, some very rich people are spending billions so they can make trillions.

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Solar panels could cost thousands of jobs in Colorado. Today, Minnesota lawmakers are voting to abolish a solar power subsidy program despite objections from... The impending tariffs on solar panels could cost thousands of jobs. The cost of going solar in Arizona, that is going up. Power companies around the country are changing the rules, making solar power an investment that could take several lifetimes to actually pay off. It's clear to me that the utilities reap all the financial benefits while we suffer the consequences. I want to find out how the system got so broken because if the fight out there is anything like Nevada, we're losing.

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Welcome to the South. You know, a lot of this part of the country reminds me of where Drew and I grew up. There's a lot of agriculture and a lot of farms. I spent a lot of time on the ranch, so I really feel like I know these people. How long have you been running this piece of property? Since before I been here. - Oh, yeah. It's been in the family since back in the early 1900s. Oh, wow. So you can't take any credit? No, none at all. None at all. What's sort of the perception of solar out here? Two years ago, you couldn't talk to anybody about it, but now more and more people are trying to get 'em put on their homes and everything. Like a lot of America, Georgia is fi lled with farmland... vast sunny countryside perfect for solar to assist wi th the incredible cost of growing crops and raising animals. So not only do you have to get all of the water pumped to all of this, then you need to get all of this refrigerated. Absolutely. What? - Yeah. A farmer now, he going to have over a million dollars tied up in just equipment. And what about your operating costs, like utilities and stuff? Is that-- That keeps going up, going up.

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In Georgia, the market fo r solar is controlled by the energy commission just like Nevada. There are currently no tax credits offered, and the legislature has never required utilities to produce renewable energy.

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Part of my journey me ans finding activists looking out for people like these farmers. It turns out one from Georgia had taken her fight to my own backyard. We want them to see just how many people care about solar and energy freedom.

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Debbie is nobody's idea of a liberal tree hugger. She's a founding member of the Tea Party, she loves guns, and she's leading the fight for solar energy in America. I'm not the only one in the South that's a Conservative that loves solar. Conservatives, we don't want the government telling us what we must do. The customer's voice is drowned out by the voice of big money. Individual liberty, energy choice, and jobs-- those are the messages that resonates with Conservatives. For years, Debbie and her friend, Kay, have been fighting for the energy rights of Georgians. Welcome. - Thank you for inviting me. Oh, I'm hugger, too. Nice to be here. Welcome to the South. - Thank you very much. We have set here and watched our farms deteriorate. We've watched our kids leave because they need jobs, and it's just been a sad thing for me. So I tried to find out what I could do to help. My goal was to help farmers be more profitable, and solar, it could help us down here. You know, it's right there. It can help us in so many ways, but yet we're fighting against so mething that is just-- we can't win at this point. - You're shackled. You're held captive to these utility companies. They want to control it. They want to stop competition from solar. Georgia power's the primary provider of electrical energy in the state. They serve over 2.5 million customers. Their utility model is also the norm for other parts of the country.

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Utilities don't like competition. They own electricity. It is theirs. They don't want to change that basic relationship between them and their customers. They're not willing to change. The utility, the guys who play golf and have the whale pants-- they own the production, the generation of electricity. They own the transmission, which is the high power lines that send the stuff over long distances, and they own the distribution, which are the power lines yo u see on your street. And they're making ma ssive profits, and there's no pushback. If you want to go buy an iPhone or any other kind of consumer product, you go out to a store, and you have a number of choices. With electricity, in most of the country, you really only have one choice, and that company ha s a monopoly.

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What they actually have is a government-mandated legal monopoly. In the early 20th century, the government struck a deal with the utilities to guarantee power was fed to ev eryone that needed it. Even the farmer a hundred miles from the city was able to power his home because of this agreement, but what was necessary a hundred years ago isn't needed now. We've come a long way fr om horses and buggies, milkmen and silent movies. The reason monopolies are illegal is because they're bad for you, the consumer. Historically, the government has done everything it can to prevent one company from controlling a product or service market. Yet today, most of th e country's utilities have remained a zero-competition business. Georgia Power announced that it will go ahead with the completion of these two nuclear power plants. The plant has been plagued by cost overruns and delays. The construction is years behind schedule and billions over budget. In 2012, Georgia Power convinced the state's public utilities commission to approve the construction of two nuclear reactors at the Plant Vogtle site. The project actually started out at $7 billion, and the prices have escalated. Now we're talking about $27 billion. Georgia Power customers have been paying an extra hundred dollars a year on their bills si nce 2012 for reactors that won't start generating el ectricity until 2021. They mismanaged the Vogtle project, and all of a sudden, they have doubled their profit. Their profit went from $2.7 billion to $5.4 billion. You screw up, and you actually get more reward for it. Absolutely. - Bingo. For utilities, bad business is good business because their monopoly deal also guarantees them a 10% profit on anything th at generates revenue. This includes the cost to build and maintain their own publicly funded in frastructure.

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They want us to stay addicted to their monopoly model. I mean, they have a guaranteed profit. They want to be able to build a central station power plant, build the transmission lines, do all of that huge infrastructure because they get a guaranteed 10% markup to where the customer ends up with ever-rising energy bills. In the business world, those types of guaranteed returns don't exist. I think it's probably one of the most challenging times in our business since Thomas Edison founded it more than a hundred years ago. The trade association for electric utilities that all these companies po ol money into, they're called the Edison Electric Institute. They're one of the more powerful lobbying organizations in Washington. As you know today, the world's electricity markets are radically different from the ones that existed just 10 years or so ago, so it's even more important that we work together to find ways to accomplish the goals that I know utilities around the world have. In 2011, they put out th is national-wide paper known as "The Death Spiral," and it became all the rage within policymakers of, "If we continue to allow rooftop solar to grow unbridled "and truly, you know, create this vision of the future, the utilities around the country will go bankrupt." That was a brilliant move on Edison Electric's part. And the utilities' next move is to get politicians to convince you that their problem is your problem. We're gonna bring the coal industry back, folks. We're gonna bring it back.

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We are putting our great coal miners back to work.

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When you mention Kentucky, everybody thinks "coal." I mean, that's just what it is. Years ago, we had thousands of coal miners. Every little town you see around here was built from coal.

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So where we are now, we're in the power plant built by the United States Steel Corporation in 1914, '15, '16. The fuel for this power plant came from the coal on either side of the creek here... Which produced electricity for the mines, the mine offices, the bathhouse, the church, the school, post office, the company store. For over a century, the miners of eastern Kentucky worked tirelessly, risking their lives an d their health to keep the lights on across the country. My family all were coal miners. Obviously, this country was built on coal. Yeah. - Coal miners are sort of the backbone of the country. - Absolutely.

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My dad worked 38 years in the coal mine. He was 64-- 68 year old when he died. He died of black lung. - Oh, he did? Yeah. - And you have-- I do, and I do. I have it, too. Yeah. Black lung, a disease caused by the inhalation of coal dust, has cost this community dearly, yet it's entirely preventable. And is that something that slowly gets worse and worse? Oh, yes. Yes, it does. How many friends have you lost? Oh, Lord, hundreds. Hundreds. I'm telling you, over 40 year, hundreds. Your lungs affects every organ in your body, your kidneys, your liver--everything. Coal is no longer the juggernaut it once was. It's been on the decline si nce the '50s. At its peak, the coal industry nationwide used to employee 86 3,000 miners. Today, it's less than 50,000. In eastern Kentucky, that number stands at less than 4,000. The coal communities in states like Kentucky were unfairly targeted by the Obama administration as part of its war on coal. War on coal. - The war on coal. The war on coal. Coal companies and their coal associations have been very effective at pushing this message of a war on coal and that it's been President Obama and the EPA that has led to the downfall of the industry in eastern Kentucky. It's just not true, and, you know, what's so damaging to these communities is when they still think that there's hope of a revitalization of the industry. You're prolonging that decline, and you're not allowing an y opportunity to develop a new economy in eastern Kentucky. If you were able to have an influx of jobs into this community here and it was either reopening a coal mine or it was wind or solar or another energy-- I would open a mine. You'd open a mine? - I'd open a mine. Even with all the health consequences? I would. Why not use what we got? Why not put these coal miners back to work? Let them mine the coal. Or the Sun; we've got ton-- an abundance of sun. We need the coal--the people that live here needs the coal. I guess I'm trying to think, you know, on your side, for example, so you have black lung, so why would you want anybody to go to that job? I wouldn't want 'em to get the disease, but I would want the jobs available for 'em if they wanted it.

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First of all, they don't mine the coal like they did years ago, underground. They come in here, and they take the mountaintops off. The majority of underground mines that employed thousands of men ha ve shut down. Pretty much only de structive mountaintop and strip mining are left, and many of the jobs that would have been done by hand a century ago are now carried out by machines at a fraction of the cost. Coal is not coming back as far as big jobs, and people oughta realize that.

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Eastern Kentucky people, they love to work. They love to do a good job. For what Kentucky miners has done for the United States of America, they should help us find a better way than what we got now. Even as the demand for coal has declined, it's the automation that has devastated employment, but the promise of jobs in coal's return is still a powerful party line. As we speak, we are preparing new executive actions to save our coal industry and to save our wonderful coal miners from continuing to be put out of work. The miners are coming back.

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Another empty promise to people that need jobs and could find them in an industry that grows every day the sun comes up.

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The clean energy economy has been demonstrated to produce far more jobs, three, four, and five times more jobs than the fossil economy, and that's largely because wh en you invest in fossil fuel-based energy sy stems, you're literally pouring your money down an oil well or down a coal mine, where most of that money is actually going to extraction. But when you invest in solar, you're investing in people and companies and hardware. In 2016, there were only 50,000 coal miners. In just this year, 50,000 new solar workers were hired. There's currently high demand for solar workers an d electricians with projected increases into the foreseeable future, and unlike coal jobs, these are good, safe jobs, but don't take my word fo r it. Remember Osh? Let's ask her. Working in solar is great. I feel like I'm making a difference each day I go out and I build solar for a customer. It's nice.

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It's a nice fit. We're out there with customers every day. I'm helping them in saving money and going green. Thank you. The pay is amazing. I've gotten four raises in less than a year. There's no other career that takes care of you like that. It's an amazing, amazing industry to work in, and we're just out here saving the world one roof at a time.

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Hi. How you doing? - Hey. Good. Thanks for getting together. Sure. Very excited to talk all things sun. In the very beginning, was there any opposition? In the very beginning, no, not at all. When I started, we were just going as fast as we could, just hiring as fast as we could to put solar on rooftops. There were that many people that wanted solar? Yeah, absolutely, and it was like that until the day it stopped. For Nevadans working in solar, the news was grim, and the fallout was immediate. It wasn't long ago hopes for renewable energy were dashed by the state agency that's supposed to provide fair and impartial regulation of public utilities. Utility regulators raised rates for rooftop solar customers, prompting widespread layoffs in the fast-growing industry. Back in Nevada, th e consequences of canceling net metering were being felt not only by NV Energy solar customers but by thousands of workers in the solar energy sector. For NV Energy, Governor Sandoval remained a loyal ally. There's a lot of concern about rubber stamping the wishes, the desires and the money-making ability of NV Energy here. Any of the savings, in terms if the rates are changed, go straight to rate payers. The company would not keep any of that savings. But they're probably going to get a whole lot more customers if the solar industry goes belly-up, which we're seeing happen, you know, day after day in the last week or so. I don't know if that's necessarily true. What the heck is happening? They're handing us our last check, saying that we will no longer have solar in Nevada. We are unemployed.

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Not just my job was taken away; thousands and thousands of employees throughout Nevada, their jobs have been taken as well. How many people di d you have to let go? Oh, it was a lot. It was a lot. How do you deliver that news? Oh. Um, with a lot of tears. There's not a good way to do it. "I'm sorry that we thought we had a good thing going here, and it turns out we don't." It didn't just affect us. It was just everybody. Devastating, very emotional time. I started a life here, and my life is here in Nevada. I never imagined leaving Nevada. I've never--sorry. Personally, it's one of the worst days of my life. It was--it was tragic. There's no other way to put it. So how did they do it? How did NV Energy put one of the fastest growing industries out of business overnight? First, come up with a word that no one likes and use it a lot. As the rooftop solar industry has gotten larger and larger, we've seen this subsidy grow. You have 17,000 rooftop solar customers. You have 700,000 approximately NV Energy customers who are essentially subsidizing that. We do not want the nonsolar customers, of whom there are over a million, to be subsidizing the 17,000. The customers who are participating in net metering were not sharing in the costs of the pipes and the wires that actually get the electricity to your home. That is just not true. Every utility customer pays their fair share. Look at your utility bill, and you'll see endless fixed fees that contribute to your share of the grid costs. Some solar users are even charged additional fixed fees by their utilities. Everything about a utility system is about sharing costs. You're sharing costs of infrastructure. Otherwise, if you were at the end of the line, like out in the middle of the desert somewhere, you'd be paying a hundred times more for your electricity th an the person who lives near the power plant. The transmission an d distribution of energy customers use is probably the most expensive part of their bill, but that's actually how solar helps the grid. Distributed solar helps all rate payers 'cause it lowers the grid costs. We're producing energy du ring the day, and that electricity goes onto the grid during the most expensive times. Anya Schoolman went from soccer mom to solar expert when her family decided to put the power of her neighborhood's energy needs to work. There are solutions that work for every house. Absolutely.

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Oh, it's raining, it's cloudy, not producing electricity-- Wrong, you're still producing. Absolutely. We tried, yo u know, just to do it on our house, and we called all these installers, and nobody wanted to come into D.C. There was no companies in D.C. It was just completely confusing. It was really expensive. This is 12 years ago now, and I was like, how about we get th e whole neighborhood, and then we could save money by buying in bulk and learn from each other, and we started around the neighborhood. And so two weeks later, 50 homes have signed up. Oh, yeah, there's some new ones right there, too. Yeah, I actually brought the D.C. electrical inspector to see his first solar panel. You know, he's like, "L et me see this thing. I've never seen one of them before." The utilities did not want to do it. We had to fight really hard. I mean, they basically ha ve a playbook, so it's undoing net metering, accusing solar of being a cross-subsidy, accusing it of being unfair, et cetera. After butting heads with utilities for over three years, residents won their fight. Citizens with solar panels were able to take control of their own sh ared energy resource. Organically, we went from neighborhood to neighborhood, and it's thousands of houses at this point. Anya and her fellow homeowners solved their energy needs with solar, but that was not the end of their efforts. And then a light bulb went off. We started to get an idea th at allowed us to expand the market and lower costs for everyone, and it's called community solar. With community solar, residents can take advantage of commercial buildings, parking garages, and other large pieces of land to erect large-scale solar arrays. Anyone can buy in to the system, which is especially beneficial for people without land or property where solar can be installed. Community solar also allows people in apartments to share in the benefits of renewable energy. Panels put on the building's roof not only power in dividual units but can also generate credits that further reduce costs. How much were yo ur electricity bills? This time of year, from running the AC living here in Washington D.C., the electric bills were anywhere from $150 to $200 to maybe $300, depending on your size of your unit. A month? - A month. That's insane. So how does that fit into all your expenses? Sometimes, you're working like two jobs just to make sure your electricity is paid versus your rent. So what's the difference as far as your energy costs now? Our energy bills today, as compared to before the solar panels, it's cut in half during the summer. After they put them solar panels in, I can buy more bread. I can buy more milk, and it helps a whole lot. It must be amazing, too, just to know that you can generate your own energy, too. You're not reliant solely on anybody else. -

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It feels great.

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I believe that if any other American city had control over their energy use, they would do exactly what we're doing. Right. - But the problem is, in every other American city, they're inside a state. With the state legislature, the utilities have this outsized influence. They're usually the largest political donor in the state. They often capture the public service commissions that regulate it, so to pass the bill that would do something like this, even though it makes so sense to everybody, the politics are really hard at the state level.

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D.C. was able to realize it s solar dream because, unlike every other ci ty in America, it's not in a state. No state, no state government, no state PUC and no state-sanctioned monopoly. The current way our energy economy works is really regressive. It hurts the poor the most. The less disposable in come you have, the more you end up sp ending on electricity. In that sense, the ability to take control of your electricity, whether that means making your house a little more efficient or putting a solar panel on your rooftop, that is a field-leveler.

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This little light of mine, Lord

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I'm gonna let it shine Oh, this little light of mine I'm gonna let it shine This little light of mine Light has a biblical an choring to it. It says, "Let there be light," and there was light, and it was light for everybody. It was for the good of the whole. Why should some company get a monopoly on that and say, "Nobody can do this but us"? This little light of mine I'm gonna let it shine Faith Community Church is known throughout Greensboro for their social activism. Pastor Johnson himself has fought on the frontlines fo r civil rights and the protection of his own community for decades. Nelson has always sought to be in the top in civil rights for human beings. He never wanted to be average, and he never has been. There's not a Christian fa ith where you sit back and observe unethical things an d say, "It doesn't affect me." Nelson has made some major impact in the community, and his thing is, "As long as I have a voice, "I refuse to be part of the silent majority who sits and watches as things deteriorate." That's been his modus operandi all of his life. Many of our parishioners are those who earn less than a thousand a month, working sometimes two and three jobs. One of the founding members of this church, Sister Linda Jones, she literally cut her pills in half, skipped days in order to pay her light bill. God bless her soul, she passed on, and there are hundreds of people right around here who need that help. When you have to decide whether you're going to take your medicine or whether you're going to put on the food on the table for your family instead of having to pay the electricity bill, something is not right, something is not balanced. It's a sin. It's obscene. So the question gets to be, how do our kids ge t the best education? How do we bring businesses? Ho w do we bring people? How do we provide programming that will enable them to have a better quality of life? There are a hundred black churches in Greensboro. They have acres of land. They could build a community solar farm. Their members see their church saving money. That would spawn a whole new industry. I can imagine young black men and women getting trained right here in Guilford County to service these churches and to service these homes. I was getting very excited about the possibility of a solar movement. What was standing in the way of that was the policies of Duke Energy and the regulations of the utilities commission. In North Carolina, as in many states, there are laws banning customers from buying energy from third parties. NC WARN, a nonprofit environmental group, teamed up with Pastor Johnson to challenge that law, installing a solar array on the church's roof in hopes of driving down the cost of energy for those who need it the most. They wanted us to join them to challenge this monopoly. They sent a cease and desist order to our partner, NC WARN, and told them th at they would be fined something like a million dollars a day. We were that much of a threat to them. Solar is the way to go, hey, hey! Far from laying down and being intimidated by the most powerful corporation in the state, what happened next was truly inspiring.

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The church directly confronted Duke Energy and took their case all the way to the state supreme court. I knew th at there were policies and laws put in place, but I have learned to be discerning about policies and laws. It was very clear to me that I needed to be part of challenging the law because that would open th e door in reducing the cost of energy. It would open the door to build unity between churches and between cities. It had enormous possibilities. Oh, wow. There is no doubting who is the most powerful company in the state. That's pretty clear with that building. It definitely looks like they could financially draw out a legal battle a heck of a lot longer than anybody else. Faith Community Church wanted to test regulation in North Carolina by doing something that was basically illegal. They were trying to pick a fight. You could say that; they had a good setup to get publicity. This was a African-American church, and we're a big utility, and we're a target, and sometimes there are groups out there-- they're not trying to advance policy. They're trying to get media attention, and they did a good job here. Are there situations where, as a human being, you have a conflict as a utility company where you're saying, "This is how it has to be," versus maybe "There's a bigger picture with something that's broken"? I think that's just the way it has been. That's the worst explanation I've ever-- That--to me, when somebody says to me, "It's because it's the way it's always been," we used to enslave people. That is just the way it always has been. I think, you know, we have to operate with the system we have in place, and right here in North Carolina, we have a regulated electric system, and we're doing the best we can in our little sandbox here. Sadly, the North Carolina Supreme Court ruled against NC WARN, upholding the law prohibiting third-party sales. All payments provided by the church to NC WARN were awarded to Duke Energy. It's just so frustrating when you see how rigged the game is. "You know, we just have to follow the rules. It's the how it's always been." Yeah, you set the rules. You put in the politicians that were going to do your bidding, and all these people here, everybody here, unfortunately, they're the ones who are manipulated. It is just an archaic old-boy system, and they've essentially figured out a way to print money, and they want to protect that. Why would we allow government to be influenced so easily by a corporation whose goal is to maximize their profits regardless of the outcome or the side effects of their product? When the marketplace is working, when people are installing solar, this is a big threat. Coal, petroleum, natural gas, the three primary fossil fuels, today provide 87% of the energy globally. There's a huge amount of money spent, especially by the fossil fuel companies, to try to influence anything they can that makes their industry more profitable and able to grow.

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Two of the biggest contributors to lobby spending have been Charles Koch and his late brother, David. The brothers' Koch In dustries Incorporated is heavily invested in the natural gas industry. Natural gas now accounts for over 35% of our energy supply and has played a critical role in slowing our transition to renewable energy. They're billing natural gas as being a clean option, and I think they're comparing that to coal. They're not wrong. It's cleaner than coal, but solar is cleaner than natural gas. We don't emit any carbon dioxide or other harmful emissions. Its extraction by the process of drilling deep wells and then setting off powerful explosives leads to groundwater contamination, air pollution, and increased frequency of earthquakes. From 1975 to 2008, there was precisely one quake per year with a magnitude of 3.0 or over in Oklahoma. It's now up to 40 quakes per year, and you get all of those other and smaller quakes. There were 2,600 quakes under 3.5. Despite the environmental and economic impact of fossil fuels, many in government are still under the Koch influence. So if you get campaign help from the Koch brothers, you think you're gonna go around talking about we need to transform our energy system? I don't think so. I don't think so. When you look back over the years of the last several cycles, hundreds of millions of dollars in electoral politics, what have you gotten for that? I think there have been some good things, particularly at the state and local level. Boy, have they ever. Koch Industries have partnered with numerous lobbying groups, including Edison Electric Institute and many other firms an d think tanks with locations all over the country. You have states like Nevada, Florida, Southern states that should be leading our country and the world in moving to solar, and they're way behind states like Vermont, by the way, and that is the power of the Koch brothers. It is the power of utilities and big money who are saying to those states, "My God, we have an incredible natural resource here. Don't tap it." Florida gets 3% of its electricity from renewables. And of that, only a fraction comes from solar. But to people like the Kochs, even the smallest threat is a target. Amendment 1 is putting home solar panels on the ballot. Here in the Sunshine State, we rank 17th in the nation when it comes to using that solar energy. Amendment 1 is one of the most controversial issues that you're being asked to vote on today. It's the Florida Solar Amendment.

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The Koch brothers' efforts-- they can't be as upfront. This ad is all over social media telling you to vote yes for Amendment 1. It sounds pro-consumer, but tonight, critics say it's really a power grab for the power companies. They are always behind legislative disinformation campaigns. Amendment 1 guarantees Ra y's right to generate his own solar energy, and Ray can sell energy back to the grid. That's good for Ray, good for the environment, good for Florida. On November 8th, vote yes on 1 for the sun. On its face, Florida's Solar Amendment 1 appeared to give customers what they were asking for. The way it's written is, the first sentence hits you right in the face and says, "Boy, this is the greatest thing in the world." Except it didn't. The amendment establishes a right under Florida's constitution for consumers to own or lease solar equipment on their property. But we obviously already have the right--I installed it. We've heard from a lot of you about Amendment 1, the solar amendment, saying that it's confusing. I'm not that guy who's, you know, trying to wear a tinfoil hat and think there's all these conspiracy theories, but I honestly feel like there's this effort to back the fossil fuel industry. There's nothing conspiratorial here. This is way out in the open. So I'm not crazy? - Well, I don't know if you're crazy or not, but you're right on this issue anyhow. Big power companies like Duke Energy, Florida Power and Light, and TECO have been dumping millions of dollars into this pro-Amendment 1 campaign. Buried in the ballot in itiative was language that would actually kill the rooftop solar industry in Florida. The amendment could allow utilities to kill programs that made it worth investing in panels, including net metering an d third-party leasing, just like Nevada. And how do we know this? We caught them telling the truth. Really? He told the truth? That's what happened? Wow. In September of 2016, an audio recording surfaced of this man, Sal Nuzzo, the vice president of policy at the James Madison Institute, a Koch brothers-funded political think tank. It explained how Amendment 1 deliberately misled the public. They tried to deceive voters, and it's really shameful and disappointing to see that this happened. It's like they don't even care. I don't blame people when they can't figure out what the hell to believe. Yeah, it's extraordinarily difficult to convince somebody when the whole discussion is happening outside of the factual world. These utilities spent $26 million trying to pass this ballot initiative, and for most of the year, it looked like they would win. When we got that audio recording, we gave it to reporters throughout Florida, and people were un derstandably outraged. There's only one industry that is threatened by your right to solar, and it is the big utility companies. Last week, the union representing Florida's professional firefighters wi thdrew its endorsement after hundreds of its members complained. There isn't a real consumer group that actually supports the Consumers for Smart Solar. Amendment 1, focusing on solar energy, that measure has been rejected. That's the frustrating thing fo r me, is it's the misinformation. If I'm making a decision, somebody out there can spend a bunch of money to confuse me. They came in, and hidden from view, they ran this massive television ad campaign based on falsehoods, but people from all political persuasions said, "Wait a minute. Th at's not fair. We're not going to stand for this." Stopping Amendment 1 in Florida was a small but important vi ctory for solar power. The momentum was continuing across the country as many cities and states were embracing the solar movement. A state district judge has sided with solar energy advocates. Applications for solar panels-- permits roughly doubled. A clean energy bill has passed unanimously in the South Carolina General Assembly. And in Nevada, the people were making themselves heard, and the politicians we re finally listening. An alternative energy source is poised to make a comeback in Nevada. Rooftop solar will shine again in Nevada after spending nearly two years under a dark cloud. Sandoval is taking action on that big battle that's been going on be tween solar customers and the Public Utilities Commission. Following the large-scale job losses in Nevada's rooftop solar sector, political attitudes against net metering began to shift. Everyone was concerned about the state's economy, but what caught politicians' attention was that nonsolar customers were as upset about the changes to net metering as solar customers. When the legislators we re knocking on doors, talking to their constituents during their campaigns, they were asked, "What are you going to do about "restoring the rights of residential solar customers and our ability to choose solar"-- was one of the top questions that came up during that campaign. There was obviously a backlash where people felt that they were robbed of, you know, their right to net metering. You don't breathe a sigh of relief because you weren't robbed. You get pissed off because your neighbor was robbed. The governor recognized th at there was a problem that had to be resolved. Was that in response to the people? He never said that, but I believe that it was. If you ever thought your voice doesn't matter, here's a clear case proving that wrong. The people of Nevada ov erwhelmingly disagreed with the PUC's changes to net metering laws, and the governor got the message loud and clear. Governor Sandoval could tell that being an antisolar Republican in Nevada is not good for his political future, and he reversed course. That public utility commission that had ended net metering in Nevada, they all got sacked. He appointed th ree new commissioners, and within 12 months, they completely reversed their decision, so they restored net metering. The new law capped how much consumers could make on net metering, but despite that, the news was positive. Net metering was back in Nevada, and most important, the Nevada legislature passed a bill enshrining the rights of customers to net metering. They did something that the rest of the country hasn't done yet. They created a renewable energy bill of rights which enshrines Nevadans' right to choose solar for their home. AB405 let us come back. It basically gave a bill of rights to the solar customer. It let us start working again. Do you think that there will be another boom? I think there is right now. It's not nearly as dramatic or radical as it was, but we are moving in that direction. Nevada is a great lesson of how, when utilities tr y to take away peoples' rights to go solar and try to charge people more for that unfairly-- if they go too far, people get really angry. They want the ability to make their own electricity, and when they feel that is threatened by this big company that doesn't have their best interests at heart, they will fight back, and in Nevada, they fought back, and they won. People coming together to demand the right

to create energy from the sun

it 's inspiring. It's clear that solar has an abundance of advantages, but like anything, it also has its drawbacks. The key limitation on using so lar panels is the sun isn't always shining, and at night, you have to have power from somewhere else. You have to produce electricity at exactly the moment when you need it. If the supply does not equal de mand, the system will break. I'm not saying solar is flawless. It has its hurdles to overcome. Obviously, panels don't generate electricity when there's no sunlight. However, advances in concentrated solar and in home battery technology are allowing power to be stored for more homes when the sun isn't available, but they're still ve ry expensive. Also, in places that typically get very little sunny weather, solar might not be co st-effective, and while solar is getting cheaper, the initial cost often discourages people from pursuing it as an option. The life span of photovoltaic ce lls is about 25 years, which is much shorter than the life span of nuclear or hydroelectric power plants. The panels also use a number of hazardous materials in their manufacturing pr ocess. While most of the panels and components are salvageable, some of these parts are not recyclable. Also, workers regularly run the risk of having to handle potentially hazardous chemicals. The manufacturing process also produces a tremendous amount of waste, some of which can be toxic. And generally speaking, solar takes a lot of surface area to produce a small amount of energy from the sun, so growth in efficiency in panels is going to be tr emendously important. These are all challenges that will take time and money to solve, but what seemed impossible 20 or 30 years ago is being taken for granted today. The remaining challenges fo r solar energy will be solved soon, but the problems that fossil fuels have created will take decades and trillions of dollars to overcome. 70% of African American communities live within 30 to 40 miles of a toxic-emitting power plant. Today, more than 26 million Americans suffer from asthma. African Americans are three ti mes more likely to die from asthma than any other group. At least 30 to 40% of our young people in this neighborhood are actually going to hospitals as a direct result of the type of energy that's used. There's an economic an d health justice issue embedded in not having access to solar renewable energy. What are some of the health concerns that are directly affecting this community? People dying of cancer, brain tumors, and nobody could explain why they were happening. The soil itself is toxic, and it shows up in the food. What's causing this? - Coal ash.

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to create energy from the sun

Coal ash is the highly toxic residue of burnt coal. It contains arsenic an d toxic metals linked to cancers, respiratory problems, neurological disorders and birth defects. What do we want?

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Clean air. When do we want it? Now! I grew up within the shadow of that steam station. Nobody told us not to eat the fish from the lake. Nobody told me my air was polluted. I noticed the sky was a little different color, but nobody told me the problems. Every morning, when we got up, there was such a thick layer of coal ash on our vehicles. Back in the '70s, they came in when I was maybe seven or eight years old to build Belews Lake, and I was so close to the steam station where the coal ash was produced that I could hear the workers talking. The coal ash would be like a light snowfall. We didn't think anything of it un til suddenly, we realized th at there were diseases breaking out through the community. And finally, when a neighbor of mine went to the doctor, the doctor said, "Oh, you live near Cancer Lake." And we began to put two and two together. All of the stuff in the Belews Creek area is toxic. Is that a pretty affluent area? Belews Creek is a poor area.

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Every year, power utilities pr oduce 100 million tons of coal ash. Most of the waste is buried in the cheapest av ailable land, places like Belews Creek. My grandfather was a sharecropper who could only afford to buy some land in a primarily minority community, so I grew up in a minority community, and that's where most of those power plants are located, where the poorer people live. Land is cheap. People like us back then, we didn't know any better. They have a coal power plant that they specifically positioned in an area that they know is going to pollute the air and pollute the water, particularly in communities that don't have the economic ability to fight back and go to court. What bothers me the most, you're living on land that you inherited. You don't have the resources to just move like somebody who's rich could do, so you're just there, hoping and praying. A recent study of 242 co al-fired power plants found that 91% had elevated levels of toxic pollutants in nearby groundwater. We don't really know the truth of whether the water we're now drinking is polluted, and based on the history we've seen in this country, we're not going to find that out. But it isn't that this is just some local problem; this thing is much, much bigger than the 30 or 40 miles surrounding Belews Creek. That's where we are in this country. In 2019, North Carolina ruled that Duke Energy must remove decades of stored coal ash from its utilities. The cost estimated by Duke Energy is more than $10 billion and will take up to 30 years to complete. The utility is billing its customers for the cleanup. 2016, Duke Energy's profit was $2 billion. In 2017, their profit was $3 billion, and they're gonna tell us they can't afford to clean up the mess that they made in our backyard? If you are not affected by coal ash and you're on Duke Energy, you're paying for coal ash cleanup anyway.

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They should pay for the cleanup that they made billions of dollars off of, making us sick for 40 years. That's right.

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There's a hidden subsidy in the cost of energy derived from fossil fuels. The price we pay is not just the billions of dollars spent in cleaning up th e toxic waste, but more importantly, in the lives of the people exposed to the air and water it poisons. The damage fossil fuels can cause means tremendous pain and suffering for the victims and their families. My grandfather, Dan Scott, was among the countless people who have died from coal-related illness. So I have a personal concern for the well-being of these miners. Coal, obviously, is part of the legacy in your family. Oh, yeah. - But it's also what's causing, you know, the young death in your family. Yes. Yeah, it is. - For you, in this area here, what's the most important? Is it job creation? Is it health, the economy locally? What's the most important thing for you? Most important thing for me, well, right now it would be my health. Would you recommend somebody become a miner? I would. Let me say that another way. I wouldn't recommend my children to do it. No, I wouldn't. No, I would not. No. I wouldn't let-- Shortly after we spoke, Billy Noble lost his battle wi th black lung disease, leaving his wife without a partner and his children without a father.

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For big investors, solar poses a risk to more than just th eir utility interests. An energy sea change poses a threat to billions of dollars spread across dozens of businesses in the fossil fuel sector. Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway company owns utilities including NV Energy, MidAmerican Energy Company, and Pacific Corporation. Revenues in 2018 topped $19.8 billion. They also own the transportation companies and pipelines that move the energy resource, including Northern Natural Gas, Kern River Gas Transmission, an d Kern River Pipeline. They own the railways that move coal, natural gas, and oil across the country and companies that inspect the resource wh en it arrives. They own the businesses that insure these companies. They own the companies that pull the fossil fuels from the ground, and they own the chemical companies that help it flow across the nation as quickly as possible. Koch Industries' tentacles reach even further into the fossil fuel sector with refineries across America and heavy interest in pipelines and other means of transporting fossil fuels. One of their companies, Reiss Viking, has a product it claims touches 40% of the 1 billion tons of coal produced every year. The investor with quite possibly the most at stake is BlackRock Inc. Larry Fink's company controls $11 billion across more than 50 companies investing in coal power plant construction, making it easily the largest in vestor in the sector. BlackRock also owns stakes in the parent companies of Duke Energy, Georgia Power and Florida Power and Light. And to bring this full circle,

one BlackRock's holdings

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway. With so much on the line, it's clear that these companies and their owners have decided that the human cost of doing business is far outweighed by the financial losses that come with change. Utilities are doubling down against solar. In Arizona, $38 million was spent to kill a pro solar bill, and in Nevada, Warren Buffett's NV Energy was about to make the 30 million spent in Florida look like chump change. Or maybe the most controversial and expensive showdown in Nevada state history. 3 proposes to amend the state constitution to allow customers to choose which company they buy electricity from. That would effectively end NV Energy's state-regulated monopoly stranglehold on your power rates. Even though Question 3 would end NV Energy's monopoly in Nevada, the utility pledged to accept the results regardless of the outcome. And if the state decides that some form of deregulation is the right thing to do for the state of Nevada, then we're gonna roll up our sleeves and get down to work. But instead of rolling up their sleeves, NV Energy reached de ep into their pockets and spent almost $63 million on misleading information meant to kill the measure. Nevada public safety groups have joined together to oppose Question 3. 3 would dismantle our state's existing electric system and eliminate consumer protections. The goal was to strike fear into the hearts of voters. It would also eliminate Nevada's current rooftop solar program. It could also lead to power shortages. Higher electric bills especially hurt small businesses. Higher electric rates especially hurt those who can least afford it. Unreliable power for air conditioning and home medical equipment th reatens lives.

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Vote no on 3. - And the campaign worked. Question 3 was Florida's Yes on 1 all over again, but this time, the same game plan of scare tactics and misleading information delivered for the utility. The measure, along with the hope of a free utility market was killed. Once again, money talked. Last night, all questions on the Nevada ballot passed with one exception, the most controversial one, Question 3, the Energy Choice Initiative. One sector in particular is catching fire. Check out energy, leading the market today, and up more than... And the oil certainly he lping the sectors out, but it's really th e only one... We're seeing all of our sectors in the economy pick up. They've got $220 million of profit. And it will be in commercial operation early this year. And, again, you will make money off that. Yes, sir. We sure will. I'm not saying it's hopeless, but it is definitely gonna be an uphill battle. I didn't put panels on my roof for financial reasons. We know what is happening to the planet, and we know that we need to do something.

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This is not about your party or the color of your state. This is about people. This is about their lives, their wallets, their planet. Going around the country and talking to all these people, you know, I'm realizing we all want a better, healthier life for our families, for our children. Whether you're fighting to save the planet or to save money, we all win if things change. I think the solution's the same. We want the people in power to protect the people they serve. The only way it's gonna happen is if we fight together and make it happen. All of these people who are supposed to be there for the people, they're doing everything they can to stifle what the people want, and it's the most frustrating thing I think I've ever experienced. It's definitely not the way American democracy is supposed to operate, and I have a--well, first of all, cheer up because there's a lot of great stuff going on at the local level and at the state level. I get a huge amount of energy from the business community, the NGO community. There are now 70 cities in the U.S. that have made a formal commitment to reach 100% renewable energy, and quite a few of them have already done so. The Lone Star State is famous for being the biggest oi l producer in America. Now the Texan city of Georgetown is aiming to ditch fo ssil fuels altogether. In the late 1990s, the State of Texas deregulated the electric generation market. We could then go into the open market and buy generation ourselves, and we didn't know at that time whether it would be renewable. We just knew we needed flexibility. We had 40 plus bids on wind energy and solar energy. The two sources combined produce enough re newable energy to keep the city renewably powered. Renewable power has been go od for our businesses. Certainly we have some of our major employers that really see it as a benefit. We're a red city in a red county in a red state, and it's a well-known fact that I am a Republican. I've been a Republican for a long time. Renewable energy is supposed to be this left-wing theory about energy. You put these silly national partisan politics aside, and you can do things that really help everybody. And you have all these wonderful environmental benefits. What else is there left to argue about? That argument is over. Though Georgetown has proven the technology works, it struggles wi th its financial model and currently produces more energy than it can use or even sell, but it's far from the only city seeing progress in the growth of clean energy. Honolulu, Hawaii, has the most solar capacity installed per capita. In Florida, the Jacksonville solar farm generates enough power for 1,500 homes, and in 2017, Worcester, Massachusetts, opened the largest municipally-owned solar farm in New England. The city expects the project will pay for itself in only six years. These cities have something in common. They have the means to make big, impactful changes to their energy system. They also have leaders who put incredible effort and energy into making sure things happen. For the rest of us, however, not having resources or strong leadership leaves us at the mercy of politicians, utilities and a rigged system that they've put in place. Most Americans remain powerless. My motivation to tell this story started out as environmental. It quickly became social, and before I knew it, it was personal. What I learned is that great things can happen if people decide th e most important thing is to help other people. And not far from th e simple solar install that started my journey, I found a shining example of how this can work, how fixing the system is possible, and most important, I met people that have taken in credible steps to provide for those who are desperately in need. Way out in the dry, cr acked Arizona desert, I found hope. Welcome to the Navajo Nation. - Thank you very much. I'm Deenise. - So nice to meet you. -

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Scott. - Pleasure to meet you. Thank you for joining us on this very special day. We're celebrating new beginnings. The sun. - Exactly. You're celebrating the sun. Exactly, we're celebrating the sun. This is impressive. Wow. - Isn't it? In an area just south of Arizona's Monument Valley is the Kayenta Solar farm, the Navajo Nation's first utility-scale solar plant. For years, people didn't th ink anything like this could exist here on the Navajo Nation. It's our pride and joy right now. I love it. Not just a testament to the engineering brilliance of the Navajo Nation,

Kayenta represents something far more important

hope and independence. We always had to rely on somebody else. If we didn't pay somebody something, if we didn't give somebody something, we wouldn't get it. Whereas this project, we built it. We planned it. We designed it. We get the benefits from it. But it wasn't al ways this way. The Navajo Tribal Utility Authority traditionally purchased mostly coal-generated electricity from third parties at a cost of nearly $30 million per year. Because we're not a energy producing entity, we were dependent on outside entities to provide us the power. It was expensive, and the costs were increasing. And to make matters worse, the money was leaving the community and not being reinvested. We're a nonprofit entity. All the revenue th at we generate goes to the benefit of our customers, but still we had 15,000 homes without electricity. They may have electricity at work, at school, but when they get home, they don't have access to electricity. My mom, she waited he r whole life, and now she's gone. She never had any power. The only thing that I have power out here is a power generator, and I went through about three of them, you know? You just don't buy that 1 gallon or 2 gallon gas for the generator. You gotta buy gas for your vehicle. That one gas trip that's done probably two times a week ends up being pretty expensive. We're forgotten people out here without water, without electric. That's how I was raised. I had to buy kerosene lamp. I spent a whole lot all these years because of that. Our kids, they move into town where the light is. I want my daughter home. Faced with 30% of homes in the Nation still without power, in a bold and forward-thinking move, the NTUA decided they needed to get into the energy generation business. Technology is finally becoming affordable to the point that solar was an option that couldn't be ignored anymore. The solution was to embrace so lar technology and build the Kayenta So lar facility, which would allow the NTUA to expand services to more customers without power. Right now, the Kayenta Solar facility does feed into 18,000 homes. Once electricity reaches a traditional homestead, then the younger generation moves home so they can raise their families. So the money that's generated fr om our people is turned right back into the community. We have a little over 700 employees, and we would like to extend electricity to as many homes as possible for the first time. -

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That's what NTUA wa s built on... Taking care of our own. -

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Kayenta represents something far more important

Yeah. Yeah. It brings me personal gratitude to provide for our communities, for our children and grandchildren. All right! Just a flick of a switch... -

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Kayenta represents something far more important

And a light turns on. -

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Kayenta represents something far more important

It takes your breath away, really, when you provide a family wi th this thing that a large part of the U.S. population take for granted. Thank you very much, you guys. It gives us a sense of empowerment. -

speaking language

Kayenta represents something far more important

I was raised without electric--nothing. No running water--wagon, horses, and it's good feeling.

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Kayenta represents something far more important

In our culture, the sun is a powerful symbol, and it brings us life. It sustains life. We consider the energy generated as an additional blessing from such a powerful source. The Kayenta field is a story about using the power of solar to transform a community... What a view right there. Hold on. I need a picture of this. Which is I'm here today to break ground

on one of the most inspiring discoveries of my journey

the Navajo Nation's Kayenta II Solar Project. A Momentous occasion for the Navajo people and NTUA, and I just wanted to welcome you here and thank you all for being a part of this. Yay!

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on one of the most inspiring discoveries of my journey

Energy democracy at work, but fields like this are only part of the solution. To make real meaningful change, we need a major shift to solar and other renewables. I've traveled all over the country, met people from all different walks of life, and their stories have made one thing become abundantly clear. The energy revolution isn't just coming. It's already here. Solar technology is better than ever. It's clean, affordable. It's a proven job creator, and it lessens our dependence on fossil fuels. That's why utility and energy suppliers are hell-bent on controlling it. I think energy choice represents everything

that makes this country great

innovation, opportunity, freedom. And don't get me wrong-- I think utility-scale solar is an amazing option. It just can't be the only option. For many of us, there are alternatives at our fingertips. Net metering is on the rise in America, and renewables are being added to energy mixes in cities across the country. Community solar is becoming a reality for more and more lo w income neighborhoods and is becoming a possibility for people in dense urban areas. Most importantly, homeowners and landowners are opting for solar and building a future wh ere everyone benefits. Because what I want is for us all to think big. Let's be insanely ambitious and have solar for everyone become a reality. There are plenty of renewable energy options to embrace, but the sun is an incredible resource that can provide us wi th more power than we'll ever need with none of the fossil fuel side effects. Solar panels are just the start. Before you know it, we'll have solar shingles on every roof. We'll drive on highways paved in solar technology, and buildings li ned with solar windows will be capturing the sun's energy, and that's just the beginning. All of this is possible, an d it starts with you.

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that makes this country great

And look, if you're not quite there yet,

just ask yourself a simple question

where does my power come from? Or is this the right option for me and my family? And if not, you can fix it. I promise, you have the power.

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just ask yourself a simple question

If I'm bein' honest I'm angry and confused All it really takes Is a little bit of truth Is that so hard 'Cause if we're bein' ho nest Something's gotta change Enough's enough, so wake up We're all bein' played At the end of the day we're not the kind To give up hope and fall in line We're better than this If we're bein' honest