ROOFTOP RESISTANCE

TRUMP IS TRYING TO KILL SOLAR. HERE'S HOW TO FIGHT BACK.

- BILL MCKIBBEN

EARLIER THIS SUMMER, Tara McDermott, who's in charge of policy communications for a New York state solar developer called EmPower Solar, was telling me a woeful tale a lot like others I'd been hearing lately. A customer whom I'll call Pam had tried to put solar panels on top of her home in Mount Vernon to save money and help the planet. EmPower submitted its first permit application to the city in September 2023 and then went back and forth with them for months as the city asked for revisions, updated proof of insurance, and other documentation from Pam. Eventually, one of McDermott’s colleagues got fed up and reached out to the mayor for assistance—in fact, he drove to City Hall and asked to see her. Upon being told that she wasn't in her office, he said he'd sit there and wait for her return.

“It turns out the mayor was indeed there in her office and couldn’t leave without passing him,” McDermott recalled, warming to her tale. “So they called the police on my guy to remove him from the space—they deemed him a threat.”

Eventually, after some negotiation, two cops were detailed to accompany the EmPower employee upstairs to the building department, and they all sat there for two hours while staff worked on the permit for the solar panels. But not, unfortunately, the permit for the electric wiring that goes with it. Before that step could happen, Pam's loan agreement expired. “There are no options left and she probably can’t go solar. And we've spent hundreds of hours on this one house,” McDermott told me.