Transcript:
On the Coeur d’Alene Reservation in northwest Idaho, kids swim, play, and shoot hoops at the Marimn Health Coeur Center, a 32,000-square-foot recreation center.
And the tribe is saving thousands of dollars a year on the electricity needed to run the facility, thanks to rooftop solar panels installed two years ago.
Laumatia: “It had been estimated that it would save about $2,500 a year. … But utility costs have gone up enough that we actually realized about four times that amount.”
Laura Laumatia is the environmental programs manager with the Coeur d’Alene Tribe.
She says the tribe is interested in renewable energy not only for economic reasons but as a way to increase the tribe’s control over its energy supply.
Laumatia: “The Coeur d’Alene Tribe is interested in energy sovereignty. If you look at the history of utility development across the nation, tribes historically have not been a big part of that. And for the Coeur d’Alene Tribe, it has four different utilities serving its reservation and little to no representation on any of those.”
So she says this solar project is helping the tribe save money while also building its energy independence.
Reporting credit: Sarah Kennedy / ChavoBart Digital Media
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