Richland County, Ohio used to be a major manufacturing hub. Now, as the plants have closed, residents are looking to renewable energy to revive jobs and development. There’s just one problem: their board of county commissioners issued a blanket ban on large-scale solar and wind projects last summer, bringing those efforts to a halt. Now, residents are waging a historic fight to overturn the ban. In this episode, host Gloria Riviera speaks with two locals behind the campaign: Brian McPeek, Business Manager and Financial Secretary of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, and Shayna Fritz, the Executive Director for the Ohio Conservative Energy Forum. Together, they break down what’s at stake, from job development and homegrown energy to the rights of farmers and landowners to earn a living from their property, and how Richland County can be a model for communities across the country to shape their energy futures.

To learn more about the campaign to reject the ban on large scale solar and wind in Richland County, visit nobanonpropertyrights.com.

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What if you could lower your utility bill at the polls? In Georgia, that’s exactly what voters have had the opportunity to do. By flipping two Public Service Commission seats in 2025, they’ve shown that elected officials can be held accountable for rising energy costs. In this episode, host Gloria Riviera speaks with Leslie Palomino, Georgia State Director at Poder Latinx, about how the organization has been mobilizing Latino voters around energy affordability and what’s at stake for upcoming elections later this year.

This episode was made in partnership with Poder Latinx. To learn more about their work, visit poderlatinx.org

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Climate solutions aren’t out of reach. They’re already here, and California is leading the way. In 2025, the state hit a historic milestone: for more than 200 days, its grid hit 100 percent clean energy, often for hours at a time, making it the largest economy in the world to reach this goal. In this episode, host Gloria Riviera speaks with Mary Creasman, CEO of California Environmental Voters, about the state’s race toward total clean energy by 2045, what this transformation means for tackling wildfires, flooding and droughts, and how we can all push politics toward climate solutions that work.

This episode was made in partnership with California Environmental Voters. To learn more about their work, visit envirovoters.org.

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