As half of HGTV's “Property Brothers,” Jonathan Scott is all about transforming interior spaces. Now he's revealing a massive space he'd like to transform — the Earth.
“Jonathan Scott’s Power Trip” is his new documentary about solar power and why this clean, renewable source of energy is being stifled by what he calls an "archaic, old boys system” that's financially addicted to fossil fuels.
“It’s just so frustrating when you see how rigged the game is,” he tells The Associated Press. “I’ve always been willing to be the person that stands up and speaks and says something.”
The film premieres Monday night as part of “Independent Lens” on PBS stations across the country and contains interviews with environmentalist and former Vice President Al Gore and Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont. It takes Scott from Georgia farmers suffering with skyrocketing energy bills to coal miners in Kentucky with black lung. He reveals his own grandfather died of the ailment.
Scott, who directs and co-wrote the film, argues that utility companies have fed disinformation about renewable energy and purposely frustrated consumer choice with a government mandated legal monopoly.
“There’s so much misinformation, I’m taking all of the truth and I’m putting it in one place. Everything that I’m showing in the film, there’s no discussion or debate or doubt about it anymore,” he said.
In some cases, he found utilities shifting the cost of coal ash cleanup onto the very same customers who contracted cancer from the waste. “We constantly keep letting them take away our rights and we let them pollute our communities,” he said.
