Waylon Brown: Rural America’s Hope and Struggles with Renewable Energy

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For rural landowners, renewable energy remains one of the most talked-about — and misunderstood — developments shaping the countryside. Waylon Brown, Regional Policy Manager for Clean Grid, sees both the promise and the growing pains facing wind, solar, and battery storage across the Midwest.

“Yeah, I think there’s a lot of different things coming on. There’s a fear of an unknown,” Brown told American Farmland Owner.

That fear, Brown explained, often runs headlong into rural tradition. “Rural America has a, ‘this is how we’ve always done it mentality’ as well,” he said.

Add to that what he described as a “visual” concern — simply not wanting to look at turbines or solar arrays — and local resistance can quickly intensify.

Waylon Brown bio:

• Clean Grid Alliance – Regional Policy Manager

• Waylon Brown Construction – Owner

• Family Farmer – Osage, Iowa

• Former Iowa State Senator

  
  

“But there are also benefits that come from being able to diversify into the renewable energies,” Brown said. “It’s the only energy — wind, solar, battery storage — is the only energy that I can identify that allows multiple people to actually be able to see income off of that.”

Renewable Energy Requirements

That structure is unique. Renewable projects require voluntary easements, agreements, and contracts with individual landowners. Instead of concentrating income in a single facility owner, payments flow directly to farmers and ranchers who host turbines, panels, or transmission lines.

“It’s that diversification, it’s that ability to share that wealth for the whole community,” Brown said.

In states like Iowa, that community impact is measurable. “The wind industry in Iowa produces a lot of property taxes, and there’s direct advantages for the local community when you look at that,” he noted.

RELATED: Some renewable energy projects, like this one, in a rural community in Iowa, have faced organized opposition. These landowners are suing because of local restrictions to a wind project.  

“They support your fire and your police, and your local schools,” he added. “Your ambulance services that you need, your roads and bridges that need to be upgraded — all those property tax dollars that they pay in. Behind the scenes, it’s going to all of those things, and that’s what helps build a community and make a community stronger.”

Solar Energy Growth

Solar, Brown said, is newer but following a similar path. “Solar’s the same way, definitely a newer part of the industry where we’re just seeing a lot of solar growth now.”

Yet as renewable energy expands, so do political and regulatory tensions. Landowners are watching the shifting balance between local, state, and federal control.

Brown’s response, “Obviously local politics always plays in on it, and I like to jokingly say everybody loves local control until they don’t,” he said. “Yes, we love local control and having those decisions at that local level until things are happening that we don’t like, and then we want to see a change.”

The deeper issue, he argued, is that permitting systems were never designed for modern energy development. “Our permitting system was designed centuries ago as to how are you going to permit anything in a county. And that system itself isn’t designed to handle the decisions and the process that are needed in order to site energy projects.”

If the U.S. expects to meet future electricity demand, Brown believes reform is unavoidable. “If we’re going to meet the energy demand of the future, then we have to be able to have a streamlined, efficient process to do so.”

At the county level, those decisions can become intensely personal. “I think the smaller the county, the more intense it can get,” he said.

Elected supervisors often see both supporters and opponents “at the grocery store, go to church with, or at school events,” which can blur the line between policy and emotion, Brown explained.

Demand for Energy

Meanwhile, demand is accelerating. “We are expected to grow at a rate that we’ve never seen before in this country,” Brown said.

Large load users such as data centers are driving much of that growth, but everyday technology adds up as well. “Every single time you pick up your phone, and you do a Google search, you’re consuming energy,” Brown said, “It’s not just your lights turning on.”

To keep electricity affordable and reliable, Brown said the grid must evolve. “We have to be able to upgrade our grid and make sure that we create a diverse portfolio that keeps energy affordable, reliable, and resilient.”

In his role covering North Dakota, South Dakota, Missouri, and Iowa, Brown sees stark contrasts.

“Every single state is different,” he said.

North Dakota, for example, “is an energy powerhouse” with vast coal resources. South Dakota and Iowa are major wind producers. Missouri relies heavily on coal but also has wind and solar in its mix.

The production-consumption balance is especially revealing. “Iowa produces more energy than what they consume,” Brown explained. “Missouri, on the other hand, consumes eight times more than what they actually produce in-state.”

That imbalance shapes economic opportunity. States able to produce abundant, affordable electricity are better positioned to attract energy-intensive industries such as data centers. “The question becomes, what are you going to do to ensure you’re able to produce more energy?” Brown said.

Resistance to Renewable Energy Production

Yet across the region, he sees a troubling trend for his industry. “Right now, what we’re seeing in a lot of the states is we’re seeing more barriers put in place and making it harder to actually produce energy, bring new projects online,” he said.

And it’s not limited to renewables. “We’re seeing the same things happening for natural gas peaking plants.”

The contradiction is clear. “The outcry is, ‘yeah, we want the energy, but we don’t want to have to look at it,’” Brown said. “Well, that doesn’t create an environment to where we’re going to be able to meet the demands of the future.”

For farmland owners weighing lease offers or watching debates unfold at the county courthouse, Brown’s message is ultimately pragmatic: the energy conversation isn’t going away.

The challenge for rural America is deciding whether to resist change or shape it in a way that strengthens both farms and communities for generations to come.