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Misinformation, fear and politics – how a South Dakota county drove away millions in solar energy
Colton Berens was looking forward to the added income from his farm, but armed with rightwing falsehoods, other Selby residents opposed the move
While some supported the project, a vocal opposition won out – complaining that such a large installation would visually mar the agrarian landscape and relying heavily on alarming misinformation and talking points spread by rightwing activists with roots in the oil and gas industry. The plains see punishing storms, and since the project would sit near the banks of the Missouri upstream of an intake for the county water supply, Jennifer warned that damage to the panels from extreme weather would cause “heavy metal toxins such as lead, and carcinogenic cadmium” to leach into the soil and waterways. There were images of shattered PV panels, admonitions of plummeting land values and an unnamed woman who shared a harrowing story of living next to a solar park in Indiana that caught fire repeatedly, leaving her children anemic and the farmland condemned.
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