Solar power developers are running into opposition in many parts of the US from people who claim cutting down trees to put up solar panels is counterproductive. It’s hard to see how it is any more counterproductive than cutting down trees to put up shopping malls, create farms, build tract houses, or expand cities but let’s at least acknowledge that trees play an important role in absorbing excess carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
In every community, there are acres upon acres of roofs on school buildings that could easily be covered with solar panels without cutting down a single tree. Not only that, those solar panels would help to offset some of the $6 billion that K-12 school systems spend on energy every year. In many districts, energy costs are second only to salaries for teachers and administrators. Colleges and universities in America fork over $14 billion a year in energy costs. And yet very few schools today are taking advantage of solar power to lower their energy bills.