Rural North Carolina town forges ahead on clean energy, despite headwinds

ENFIELD, N.C. — On a sweltering Saturday last month, climate activists, local elected leaders, and their families and friends gathered around a boarded-up home on the main strip of Enfield, North Carolina, donning sun hats and wielding garden tools.

To a hip-hop soundtrack blasting loud enough that the entire town of 2,000 could probably hear, the crew labored in the 90-degree heat to plant perennials, lay patio stones, and generally pretty-up the small yard in front of the nearly 1,800-square-foot bungalow.

“We are in beautification mode outside,” said Enfield Mayor Mondale Robinson, ​“because inside we’re at a standstill for the lack of funds right now.”

The century-old home will ultimately serve as a ​“weatherization hub” for Enfield, where many households hover near the poverty line but electricity bills regularly top $400. Powered by solar panels and a backup battery, the hub will host do-it-yourself energy-efficiency workshops and provide a stable internet connection for remote workers, Robinson said.

The hub is just one piece of a multifaceted clean energy vision charted by Robinson, together with other town leaders and climate nonprofits. Still recovering from a debilitating car accident from May, the wheelchair-bound mayor served as DJ, grounds supervisor, and occasional worker — to the certain chagrin of his doctor.

The scene was a fitting metaphor for where Robinson and his colleagues find themselves at the moment: hobbled by the ferocity with which the federal government has targeted clean energy and equity initiatives, but determined to press on no matter what.

“So, we stand in this heat,” Robinson said, ​“the same heat my grandfather and his grandfather labored in for free for somebody else. We do it for free right now, but not for somebody else — for what’s to come. It’s folk out there that don’t know that this building is for them. In spite of our federal government, in spite of, sometimes, our state government, we still stand up. We still try.”

The event last month was also about community. Climate leaders who’d worked together for years and others who’d just met took breaks in the shade to connect and reconnect.

​“It’s all about people,” said Helen Whiteley, an adjunct professor at Duke University’s Design Climate program who is supporting the town in its clean energy ambitions. ​“When you find people who believe things that are similar, you hold onto them and try to collaborate with them.”

One of the poorest and Blackest towns in America, Enfield could have a bright future, leaders here believe: The Halifax County community could supply its own solar power, upgrade its housing stock to be more energy efficient, and create gathering places powered by clean energy.

But when Robinson and his allies were first laying their plans, the prospects for assistance from the federal government were far rosier than they are today.

The bipartisan infrastructure law and the Inflation Reduction Act — both signed into law by former President Joe Biden — promised aid for clean energy and for historically disadvantaged communities.

Federal programs spurred by these laws could have potentially funded a replacement of the town’s dilapidated and outdated grid. Tax credits might have offset at least 40% of the cost of a new solar farm and battery that would supply electricity to businesses and residences, stabilizing household electric bills. A planned resilience center on the town’s fairground, intended as a gathering place during weather disasters and as an incubator for sustainable businesses, could have also benefited.