Solar power, a win for the people… and bees | Column

Corn planting is in full swing. I apologized to my bees, who would have been pleased with less corn and more solar panels.

According to the Honey Bee Health Coalition, solar can be a real win for bees. Don’t worry about solar moving into too many Iowa cornfields since bees don’t vote, they don’t have money, and they aren’t connected with wealthy political organizations.

How much do facts guide decisions? How much does money determine our choices? Cornell University published a paper (https://news.cornell.edu/rading-some-corn-ethanol-land-solar- ) for the National Academy of Sciences. They found putting solar on just 3.2% of land currently used for corn-ethanol crops would more than triple the solar energy production. The study also showed that adding solar surrounded by perennial plants boosts biodiversity, benefits pollinators and wildlife, and aids in runoff filtration. If only bees could vote or had money.

Cornell researchers found that the energy generated by one hectare of utility-scale solar production was equivalent to 31 hectares of corn-ethanol. Unlike ethanol, energy produced by solar can be used in your home.

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Can we believe Cornell researchers? The Trump administration has frozen more than $1 billion in funding for Cornell amid investigations into their diversity efforts. Who is elite? Who is being exclusive? Do we exclude their research findings because we view them as arrogant?

The Trump administration may want to look like it is for the common people, but they are elitist when it comes to money and power. They are elitist when it comes to choosing fossil fuel companies over the environment. They are elitist when it comes to choosing the voice of the rich over the common good for all.

Solar seems to have an uphill battle, even though the facts point to its valuable potential.

I remember hearing about what happened in my home state of Ohio. A rural county was considering a solar project. Knox Smart Development was formed. This sounds like a respectable group. This “grassroots organization” hosted a catered “town hall meeting” attended by approximately 500 people. This “town hall” included speakers with ties to fossil fuel and climate denial groups. The solar developer was denied entry to the event.

The newspaper reported that the emcee of this event was a local farmer (https://mountvernonnews.-solar-project). It was later revealed that the emcee was actually a chief strategist for a political consulting firm that worked for the gas industry.

Knox Smart Development had links to The Empowerment Alliance, which is linked to the natural gas industry. The tangled web of money is hard to unravel.

Each cog in the anti-solar machine — the opposition group, the newspaper, the consultants were linked to the others through finances and overlapping agendas (https://ohiocapitaljournal.anonymously-funded-group- ). The town hall meeting that was promoted as educating the public was merely a well-funded propaganda event.

Back to Iowa and ethanol. Who benefits from corn ethanol? Farmers? Politicians?

Producing ethanol costs around $2 per gallon. Without government subsidies, it wouldn’t exist. Subsidies cover from 42% to 55% of the market price (https://scam-taxpayers). Taxpayers foot the bill.

Scientists estimate the EROI or energy return on investment for corn ethanol to be between 1.3 to 1.5, meaning the fuel barely returns more energy than it requires.

 While ethanol is hyped as cleaner than gasoline, its environmental impacts are complex. Producing ethanol also drives monoculture farming, which includes heavy use of fertilizers and pesticides. Blended ethanol fuels increase emissions of volatile organic compounds, giving us ground-level ozone and smog (https://www.sciencedirect.com).

We like to see ethanal as cleaner, but it merely shifts the pollution. Watch out, bees and humans.

Then there is politics. In Iowa, one’s views on ethanol can make or break a politician. Corn ethanol companies spend money lobbying. The agribusiness lobby spent over $178 million bribing or lobbying Congress in 2023 and over half a billion dollars over five years. ( https://foodtank.com-corporate-influence )

Do we have any power to say no to ethanol?

The solar industry didn’t pay me to write this, but my bees did promise me honey.

Let’s train our minds to unravel the lies and start voting for the bees.

Jane Yoder-Short is a guest columnist from Kalona, Iowa.