As usual, progressive environmentalists are making perfect the enemy of good — this time in Amherst, Massachusetts. The victim? Solar power.
Community members and activist groups, including The Sunrise Movement, are supporting a temporary moratorium on large-scale solar projects for a variety of reasons, from lack of strict guidelines to the potential for deforestation. While it is entirely acceptable to want to vet any potential environmental projects, these blanket concerns are simply stopping clean energy deployment in its tracks.
Of course, this is symbolic of a larger trend: “not in my backyard” environmentalism. In theory, people are in favor of clean energy deployment or climate action more generally, but when that action comes to their communities, the opposition begins. This phenomenon has been most closely associated with nuclear power, as it is thought that people generally overestimate the risks associated with living close to a nuclear reactor. This theory has actually been disproven in recent years, making the lack of nuclear energy deployment all the more frustrating. If we actually want to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, we have to be open to a variety of tactics and strategies to do so.
In this specific case, Amherst residents are explicitly asking for more regulatory hurdles for clean energy development in order to feel completely comfortable with the projects. Unfortunately, this has long been the norm with climate innovation. The National Environmental Policy Act, for instance, increases project approval time by an average of nearly two years, writes the R Street Institute’s Josiah Neeley. To reduce emissions and tackle climate change, we need more regulatory streamlining, not more regulation at any level of government.
Interestingly, this opposition isn’t coming from “usual suspects,” such as conservatives or folks in the fossil fuel industry. To the contrary, Amherst is a Democratic stronghold, having elected President Joe Biden with 89% of the vote, and a Republican hasn’t won the presidential election in Amherst in recent memory. Yet, residents are seemingly united against solar farms, something of which 93% of Democrats nationally are supposedly in favor.
The city of Amherst is on the brink of making an environmentally destructive decision, spurred on by NIMBYism. If folks who live by nuclear power plants still have favorable opinions of nuclear power, there’s no reason that Amherst residents cannot see the positives of new solar farms, which have far less baggage than nuclear plants, in their city.
The simple fact is that we cannot afford to lead with fear and uncertainty in the face of climate change. We know that all sources of energy have trade-offs, and we must consider them. But, these trade-offs should not stop us from deploying clean energy and certainly should not encourage any sort of moratoriums on clean energy projects.
Activists and citizens alike who say they’re in favor of climate action must actually be in favor of climate action. We’ll never work toward a cleaner, more prosperous future if we only support reducing emissions in theory, not in practice. We have to be open to real climate solutions in our own backyards.
Benji Backer is the president and founder of the American Conservation Coalition.
