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Chapter 1: What are the current challenges facing affordable energy in America?
America needs affordable energy and that demand sits at the crossroads of creating economic stability while balancing environmental responsibility. Green energy solutions like wind and solar farms hold promise, but there's been strong pushback over safety and land use. As the country weighs questions about infrastructure and affordability, what kind of energy future should we invest in?
Hello and welcome to USA Today's The Excerpt. I'm Dana Taylor. Today is Monday, February 23rd, 2026. Here to explore those questions and to share the perspective of farmers who've grappled with the issue of land use is USA Today reporter Elizabeth Weiss. It's wonderful to have you back on The Excerpt, Beth. Happy as always to be here.
When we spoke about this topic two years ago, you told me that as a country, we've made a commitment to getting to 100% carbon neutral electricity by 2035. President Donald Trump has now reversed that. Is this goal now just dead in the water? Did we make any meaningful progress before Trump took office?
Well, as a goal, the U.S. has walked back from that and we no longer have that as a goal. That said, wind and solar are just so cheap to build and quick to build that we're already up to 17 percent of U.S. electricity coming from wind and solar power at this point. So that while it's slowing, that number continues to increase. And
We had hoped under the Biden administration, the plan had been that we would get to 100 percent solar. That's not going to happen. But it does continue to increase because it just makes sense in a lot of places.
Let's head to some of the places that have seen their economies reinvigorated by renewable energy money. How have wind and solar farms helped shape Randolph County, Indiana?
So we went there, and it's a wonderful farming county. When they got wind and solar power, and specifically wind, they were able to spend a lot of money building up their infrastructure. They redid the county fairground, which if you've spent any time in rural America, 4-H is huge. They were able to work on the 4-H sites. It ended up being a $2.8 million project.
investment just in the county fairground, which is always important for an ag community. Money went into school districts, infrastructure, ambulances. I mean, all the things that make a community vibrant and viable so that people stay there. And that's one of the concerns.
As population is lowered, I mean, we're seeing a contraction in the number of farms in the United States as they're consolidating. Counties really need the infrastructure to keep people in place because if there aren't good schools, if there aren't programs, they'll go someplace where they can get access to that.
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Chapter 2: How has Trump's administration impacted renewable energy goals?
How have he and his family balanced farming and working with renewable companies?
So he's an interesting character because his family's been there for forever. They grow corn, wheat, soy. But in 2011, they got an offer from a company that wanted to put in a wind farm. And they talked about it a lot amongst the whole family, the dad, all the siblings.
And in the end, they decided to do it because they were concerned that they weren't going to bring in enough money to keep the farm in perpetuity, which is what they want. And the thing about wind especially is that it takes up about 5% of acreage, so you can farm around it.
I mean, I've been in a lot of fields where there's a wind turbine right there, and then there's corn or soy or wheat or sorghum all around it. And so they made that decision, and according to him, it's allowed them to know that they will be able to keep that farm and pass it down
through the generations and to make the money that they're getting from it, the leases, and to make some upgrades that help them be more profitable.
Beth, not everyone is on board with having wind and solar farms in their communities. What's the verdict on green energy for people living in Randolph?
I've spent a lot of time in these communities and it is hard because if you are from a beautiful rural agricultural place, it can be a little disconcerting to suddenly see a turbine or suddenly drive past a solar farm. When you talk to farmers, I mean, farmers, they make their money from what they can do with their soil. Like that is what they're about.
At the end, it's all about how much money can I make from the ground that I own or that I have access to. So farmers are often like, hey, this is just another way for me to make money. I talked to a rancher who said, I can make money off cattle. I can make money off wind turbines. Actually, I can do both because they can coexist on my land. So for many farmers, it's not an issue.
But for a lot of people, they don't want to see these things. They are there because it's this beautiful, bucolic, lovely fields and waving grain, and they don't want to see them. There's a lot of misinformation out about them. Sometimes when you go to these areas, you hear from people that
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Chapter 3: What economic benefits have wind and solar farms brought to rural communities?
There are a lot of hurdles. You have to get the leases from the farmers, and then you have to go to the county commission, and often the county planning commission. You have to get sign-off from various federal and state oversight institutions. You have to make sure that there is no... significant environmental impact. I mean, it is a long slog.
What we're seeing is that counties are putting in place requirements that make it longer and maybe even impossible. I mean, there's a county in Michigan that requires their local county health department to sign off on whether a new wind project is healthy for the people in the community. And the people at the health department are like, that is not our expertise. How can we do this?
So people are coming up with new ways for counties to to block without actually banning these? Because if you just ban it, I mean, you might be subject to a lawsuit, like what's your basis? And counties sometimes just come up with rules that can be so difficult or onerous or expensive that developers just say, okay, this county doesn't really make sense.
Let's dive into some of the safety questions people have regarding renewable energy. We have birds and if they're impacted by wind turbines and solar farms. If solar panels are toxic, do they leach toxins into the earth? What reporting did you do on that, Beth?
So the toxins is one you see a lot where a county will have a regulation that says, You have to go out and test the groundwater to make sure these are not contaminating our groundwater. And you hear that a lot in the meetings where everybody shows up. The truth is, is that a solar panel does contain metals that if you were to ingest them would be bad for you.
However, those metals are part of the silicon. They're part of the glass that make up the solar panel. And so when I talk to scientists, MIT and other places, what the scientists have told me is really the only way that could work is you would have to grind up the solar panel and then put the resulting dust into a strong acid bath, and then you might get those metals to leach out.
But otherwise, I mean, it's glass. Things don't melt out of glass. Birds are an interesting question because, yes, especially wind turbines can kill birds. And the numbers between 140,000 to maybe as many as 700,000 a year can be harmed by wind turbines and birds and bats both, actually.
But when you talk to people about this, and even like, you know, the Audubon Society, you know, they say the important thing is to remember that, I mean, that seems like a lot of birds, but it's nothing compared to the number of birds in the United States that are killed by outdoor cats every year. And that number is estimated between 1.3 and 4 billion a year.
And also buildings, because birds fly into buildings. And that's probably... more than 900 million a year. So yes, turbines can kill birds, but really, if you're concerned about birds, that is the, it's not the least of your worries, but it's really shouldn't be high on your list.
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Chapter 4: How do farmers balance traditional agriculture with renewable energy projects?
And the rest of the world is doing exactly the opposite. I mean, you know, China is building out wind and solar. And when I speak to people about this, they're concerned that the United States is going to be left behind in this major, important transition. And at some point, if we try and play it catch up, it's going to be a lot more expensive.
Beth Weiss is a reporter for USA Today. Thank you so much for joining me, Beth.
As always, I am thrilled to be here. Thanks so much.
Thanks to our senior producer, Kaylee Monahan, for production assistance, our executive producers, Laura Beatty. Let us know what you think of this episode by sending a note to podcasts at usatoday.com. Thanks for listening. I'm Dana Taylor. I'll be back tomorrow morning with another episode of USA Today's The Excerpt.
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