The Problem With Clean Energy? You Can't See It.

It’s comforting to think climate failure has a single villain. Fossil fuel CEOs. Corrupt politicians. Trump.

But the truth is harder: climate policy is failing because we’ve made clean energy abstract, invisible, and out of reach for the vast majority of Americans.

And when people don’t see or feel the benefits of clean energy, they don’t fight for them.

The Fossil Fuel Narrative Is Winning

Right now, the fossil fuel industry is running circles around us in the story war. They’ve planted two corrosive ideas:

1. Solar is only for the wealthy. To even qualify for rooftop solar, you usually need a single-family house you own — which automatically excludes the vast majority of renters, condo dwellers, and people without pristine credit. The result? Solar has been seen as a perk for the wealthy, not a helping hand for working families.

2. Rooftop solar makes energy more expensive for those without. When those wealthier households do put panels on their roofs, they buy less from the grid. Opponents frame that as shifting grid costs onto everyone else. And because everyday Americans can’t access rooftop solar themselves, they see the logic: “I’m paying higher rates so rich neighbors can go green.”

This narrative is powerful. It’s working. Even California,...

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