Evergreen: Can you share a bit about the makeup of your community, the health challenges you see, and their relationship to the environment?

Dr. Charles: I’m a family medical doctor, so I take care of people from birth all the way through the end of their lives. In a small town like this, I take care of a large portion of its people, so I really see a broad spectrum of the community, how it's doing, and the impacts of policy on people's lives. This area is vulnerable in a lot of ways. It's one of the most low-income counties in Wisconsin. That means people are struggling with their medicines, housing, and their indoor air quality because they use combustion appliances. And everybody has been made sick by pollution. 

When you burn fossil fuels for energy, it makes people sick. From the moment of conception to the last breath, air pollution from fossil fuels has been shown to cause pre-term births, stillbirths, delayed cognitive development in children, asthma, heart attacks, lung disease, strokes, cancer, and dementia. It’s the whole spectrum of life, and nobody is free from the impacts, so it's super important on many levels to move away from fossil fuels. 

The last thing I’ll say in terms of impacts is that the area where I live is really vulnerable to climate change. Due to the topography, we’re really vulnerable to flooding, and it’s made worse by climate change. There are lots of cases of Lyme disease and heat waves, and I take care of a lot of those people who get sick when these things happen. 

Evergreen: You mentioned your excitement for the IRA and Dairyland winning a transformative grant. Could you say more about your involvement in that process, how your community benefits from federal funding, and how that funding supports rural communities like yours?

Dr. Charles: As a member of the community and a member of the co-op, a bunch of us health professionals in the Dairyland area had a good working relationship with Dairyland and encouraged them to apply [for the New ERA grant]. Dairyland is a big organization. They are an umbrella organization for a lot of distribution co-ops covering western and northern Wisconsin, and some parts of Minnesota and Iowa. One of the things I really like about co-ops is they have historical roots in the cooperative model where rural communities organize for themselves, and they have this deep legacy of innovation and adopting new technologies that can be beneficial to the community. They also have a public decision-making model and are not beholden to shareholders. Because of that, they were already making good strides in transitioning away from coal, and when we encouraged them to apply, they put together a really ambitious plan with wind, solar, and batteries. 

We know renewables and batteries are cheaper than fossil fuels, so it’s going to help my patients’ pocketbooks, but it's also going to make the air cleaner, which is going to make people healthier. Lastly, these clean energy projects have a big property tax benefit for communities, which means keeping schools open, roads repaired, and rural EMS and fire services funded and running. These projects really mattered to our communities, it’s another reason that I really want to see these projects get built.

Evergreen: Can you share how the federal funding volatility is affecting you all and the progress you hope your community makes? What do you think would happen if Dairyland loses access to the grant entirely?

Dr. Charles: There's just a ton of uncertainty right now, and that's really problematic. It is making it hard for communities and organizations to make decisions about how to move forward. 

The clean energy transition is going to happen regardless because solar, wind, and batteries are just better, and they're continuing to improve. The question is, does it happen quickly enough, and does it happen in a way that's broadly beneficial for society? Certainly, applying for this grant and getting the grant—that whole process, and most importantly the money—was going to accelerate their clean energy transition. Now, I don’t know what [Dairyland] is going to do. 

Sometimes just going through the act of planning and looking at the numbers gets people to do something, and so I would hope that even if they don't get this funding, they follow through with this plan because there are a lot of other reasons why it's worthwhile. It's still going to save money. 

But at the end of the day, there's no way around the fact that if you have $600 million come in from the federal government to help build the projects, it’s going to make the cost of electricity lower than it otherwise would have been. I want to see that for my community. Building clean energy is the best path forward, and it's the cheapest path forward. I want Dairyland to move away from fossil fuels, and I want to see them supported monetarily for their work. 

Evergreen: How has the uncertainty around federal funding affected TEPRI’s work and planning?

Margo: Solar for All funding will usher in a more resilient, sustainable, and robust energy future. The program will provide scalable solutions for reduced electricity costs and power outage support. We have already made meaningful strides in planning, including how we can collaborate with local businesses to advance economic development. Contracts have been signed and employees hired. Without knowing how to proceed, the project is stalled and it is difficult to know how to budget going forward.

Evergreen: Can you share a little about the importance of expanding solar in local communities in Texas, especially right now?

Margo: Increased residential solar will decrease energy burdens for those who need it most by reducing electricity bills. Additionally, the increase in energy resources that are geographically distributed will provide overall support to the Texas grid, which can help prevent further outages.