CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG) - People are using and pushing misinformation while debating solar farms in Linn County with elected officials, according to emails our KCRG-TV9 i9 Investigative Team received through an open records request.
The emails to Linn County Supervisors show some people pushing outright false claims like a solar farm decreasing enrollment at local school districts. Most emails push extremely misleading claims like solar panels reflect sunlight back up into the atmosphere affecting the ozone layer or solar farms will increase the local air temperatures.
Both claims are extremely misleading, according to California Institute of Technology professor Nathan Lewis. Lewis said in an email solar panels affect the ozone layer and local air temperatures similar to roads, roofs or parking lots.
“The claims are all making mountains out of molehills,” he wrote. “The effects being described are small to minimal at most.”
Ben Rodgers (D), who is a Linn County Supervisor, said he gets emails about solar farms nonstop. He said misinformation has made it more difficult to talk about local issues, but he said he has become used to people using misinformation since the pandemic began.
“One of the catchphrases is I’ve done my own research, or I’m doing research,” Rodgers said. “So you can find anything to justify your point of view.”
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