By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent
What Happened: This story isn’t so much a “what” as much as it is a “who.”The New York Times uncovered someone you’ve never heard of (if you’ve been living under a rock for the past decade): Debbie Dooley, a Tea Party founder who believes utility monopolies are stifling rooftop solar across the United States. Her stance on solar, which she says is completely consistent with both her free-market principles and her commitment to save the world “God created,” appears to puzzle The New York Times reporter who wrote the profile on her.
SolarWakeup’s View: Sometimes you get the feeling that the reporters and columnists at The New York Times don’t get out of their offices much. That, or they think of themselves as sociologists who venture out to discover new tribes of people no one else has ever seen before.
How else do you explain their seemingly incredulous profile today on Debbie Dooley, a Tea Party founder who supports solar energy? To anyone who has been awake for the past decade and pays attention to solar policy fights, 
Debbie is not an unknown quality. I actually did a series of two podcasts for SolarWakeup before joining the team with Debbie, in which we discussed at length the battle over solar in Florida. That was a rough and tumble battle in which Dooley found herself squarely in the middle and, thanks in large part to the mobilization of conservatives she led, pro-solar policies prevailed.
What was decidedly odd about the Times piece was their seeming consternation and confusion about the very idea that conservatives could support solar, even though Barry Goldwater Jr. (scion of an early founder of the modern conservative movement) has been doing it for years.
If you can see past the childlike “wonderment and awe” tone of the reporting, however, the Times’ piece does serve an important purpose: It puts the idea out into the world
that conservatives can support solar without sacrificing their conservative bona fides – and that’s important, especially in today’s toxic political atmosphere.
The solar revolution is coming, but it’s going to need as much support as it can get from everyone, including conservatives. And while solar warriors like Debbie and Barry have waged the fight for years, more must be done to build these coalitions in all 50 states – and that effort has to start with you.
More: A Gun-Owning Trump Fan’s New Crusade: Clean Energy (NY Times)