Mayor Leading Coal Town to Solar

“The new mayor of an Illinois town with deep ties to the coal industry is touting solar as a solution to lower costs on utility bills,” The Belleville News-Democrat reported in August. The newly-elected mayor of the village of Marissa, 37-year-old Chad Easton, is working with residents to promote two new proposed solar projects that he says could help the city, which has seen its population drop dramatically as coal has declined. Easton is the first Marissa mayor “in decades” without a coal-mining background. While some residents express doubts about the town’s renewables plans, others say the embrace of solar is a step in the right direction. Coal is “obsolete now,” former miner Steve Hodges told the News-Democrat. “A lot of my friends don’t believe it. They think coal is going to be king again, but I just don’t see it.” Don’t believe? Read it here: Belleville News-Democrat