Rural America must reap the benefits of clean energy deployment, and this panel highlighted the importance and hurdles in advancing clean energy in rural communities. American Public Power Association’s John Godfrey identified key challenges facing the deployment of clean energy: “access, public opinion, and domestic content.” He also highlighted the opportunities that were created through the Inflation Reduction Act.  “The Inflation Reduction Act now allows these rural communities to own the generation and receive the incentives that others had gotten previously.” This change enables rural communities to “own and operate facilities and join in the benefits of this transition into a diversified generation portfolio.” 

As Christina Hayes with Americans for a Clean Energy Grid moderated the panel, she shared how her organization is working to address concerns from rural communities. “We have a report coming out that involves facilitation among rural and agricultural interests as well as developers… as to what should a developer know when they go out to the community.” 

Meanwhile, Dr. Nick Montoni from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy shared DOE’s view that rural communities “can serve as really powerful incubators and test beds and amazing partners and validators of the clean energy technologies of tomorrow.” 

Tannice McCoy of NewRange Copper Nickel described a current project to open a mine that will produce essential materials for electric vehicles and batteries in rural Northeast Minnesota. New Range has invested nearly a billion dollars in the project, with plans for additional expansion and investment as the mine will bring significant economic impact to this rural community. 

Finally, Chris Barnard from The American Conservation Coalition shared compelling data about rural attitudes toward clean energy, revealing that “71% of young rural conservatives support transitioning to clean energy.” However, he also noted a crucial disconnect: “only 39% of young rural conservatives feel like the rest of the country, the elected leaders, are willing to listen to them on energy and environmental issues.”