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Home energy use can be expensive and contribute to climate change. But new programs aim to cut bills and emissions by focusing on energy efficient upgrades.
State College Community Land Trust has a program designed not only to help people afford a home, but to renovate the home to be as energy-efficient as possible.
Climate change is expected to make Pennsylvania warmer and wetter, with rain falling in more intense bursts. Because of that, floodwaters are now showing up outside those flood zones designated by the federal government. It will be up to communities to figure out how to respond.
Rachel McDevitt / StateImpact Pennsylvania
Solar sounds scary to people in Adams County who don’t want to see a proposed project built in their neighborhood.
Todd McCauslin, who leads a group opposing the Brookview solar project from Florida-based NextEra Energy Resources, has spent the last year trying to research the impacts.
What he’s found has him worried that the 500 acres of solar panels will destroy local ecosystems, raise area temperatures, and that heavy metals in the solar panels will leach out and contaminate the soil and water.
These concerns aren’t unique to McCauslin or Mount Joy Township.
Dan Brockett, an educator with Penn State Extension, has been getting calls from people all across the state, who are alarmed at the idea of living next to fields full of solar panels.