South Florida Sun-Sentinel Palm Beach (Sunday)
A ‘Property Brother’ sheds light on solar energy in doc
NEW YORK — 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 says. “I’ve always been willing to be the person that stands up and speaks and says something.”
The film, which premiered Nov. 16 as part of “Independent Lens” on PBS stations across the country, 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.
Scott, who directed 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.
In an interview, Scott discussed why he believes solar isn’t a partisan issue and why he’d like to install more solar panels on “Property Brothers.” Answers have been edited for brevity and clarity.
What’s fascinating in the film is that pro-solar voices can be found from die-hard Democrats like Al Gore to tea party leaders like Debbie Dooley.
I intentionally wanted to make sure that both sides of the political aisle were represented in the voices because what I discovered during the journey is it’s not a partisan issue. It’s just there are a lot of very powerful corporations that have realized if they can try and make us think it’s a partisan issue, they’re more likely to succeed in slowing things down and keeping the status quo.
You’re also passionate about climate change, but it barely gets a mention in the film. Why?
There’s a large contingent of the population who as soon as they hear ‘climate,’ they tune out and they’re not interested because they think it’s just a bunch of hubbub. I didn’t want that with the film. ... I wanted to create a film that starts a dialog and lets people listen long enough that it piques their interest and then maybe they’ll start to take a new interest in renewable energy or change their opinion.
Why don’t you do more solar installs on “Property Brothers”?
I’d love to. We’ve done a few episodes of our shows where we have put solar in, but that’s a far cry from the 400 episodes that we’ve done. And the reason is most of the homeowners on ’Property Brothers’ usually have next to no budget for everything that they want to accomplish. So we’re trying to get them the things that will functionally make their life work now.