Report Rural communities deal with emissions from industries that benefit cities

Nearly 70% of Wyomingites live in non metro areas, and a new report finds that a large portion of the state’s greenhouse-gas emissions originate there.

A Rural Climate Partnership report finds that 36% of U.S. emissions are produced in rural America, and that includes in Wyoming.

Maria Doerr, program manager for the partnership and one of the authors, said the emission impacts of rural America are disproportionately large for the population they represent. Emissions are created by the goods and services produced in rural places — such as electricity — that are then sent to urban and suburban communities. For rural communities, that means air pollution and other environmental damage.

Doerr said achieving the nation’s climate goals will take a sharper focus on rural areas.

“That is why we need rural communities to be the leaders of change for themselves because solutions will not work if they come from out of state or from the coastal cities,” she said. “Solutions must be coming from rural communities, and when they do they can both address climate issues and reduce emissions.”

Doerr said that while climate action has moved forward thanks to the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act, a portion of which have funds stipulated for rural places, the work must continue.

Wyoming produces more than 12 times the energy it consumes, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, and the state’s economy depends on energy production industries, including coal, that tend to have boom and bust cycles.

John Burrows, energy and climate policy director for the Wyoming Outdoor Council, said diversifying could help reduce emissions while also supporting rural communities.

“There’s really no one silver bullet to the replacement of a lot of these jobs, from the energy sector, from the ag sector,” he said. “But there are a lot of silver BBs.”

According to the study, increasing renewable energy, funding regenerative farm practices and electrifying homes and vehicles are good options. So is philanthropic funding, only 6% of which currently benefits rural communities.

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With hurricane season underway, South Carolina’s 344,000 acres of salt marshes are the first line of defense for the state’s lowcountry against storm surge – but only if they stay healthy.

As climate change drives Atlantic storms to higher frequency and intensity, environmental scientists have developed plans to protect the salt marshes. Brita Jessen, interdisciplinary research and partnerships lead for the South Atlantic Salt Marsh Initiative, said it’s crucial to protect the state’s coastal wetlands.

“Salt marshes help reduce the impact of flooding,” she said. “Because they can absorb some of that excess water that’s coming up into our infrastructure, they can hold in and kind of contain that water, and that’s a really important impact to our communities, and way of life as well.”

Jessen said the marshes not only protect the lowcountry from flooding and erosion but also provide a rich habitat for plants and animals. Scientists and government agencies have developed the South Atlantic Salt Marsh Initiative plan to protect the region’s salt marsh ecosystem.

South Carolina has the largest network of salt marshes on the Atlantic coast, greatly increasing habitat for aquatic life. Jessen said the salt marshes act as both a natural and an economic buffer, providing almost $700,000 of value per mile by reducing the impacts of storm surge and flooding.

“The most important part is that it’s providing an area of friction that is able to attenuate the amount of energy coming into a coastal area from the storm,” she said. “There’s a lot of wind and wave energy.”

Developers of the Salt Marsh Initiative have said the plan has two main strategies: to protect and restore the existing salt marshes, and to conserve habitat and migration corridors.

Denise Sanger, a senior scientist at the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, said officials need to develop better ways to guard against sea-level rise.

“So we’ve got to have a healthy marsh and sediment coming onto it for them to keep up with sea-level rise onto it,” she said, “and I don’t think we have as good of a handle on the expanses that we have and how well each one of them will respond.”

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At least 10% of Arizona’s population lives in rural areas, and a new report shows a significant portion of the state’s greenhouse gas emissions originate there.

A Rural Climate Partnership report found 36% of U.S. emissions are produced in rural…