Tag Archives: AEE

AEE Releases Clean Energy Election Guide For Nine State Governors’ Races

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent

In case you’ve been living under a rock, there are elections coming up in a little less than a month. In nine states, there are contested races for governor. If you’ve been wondering how your candidate stacks up on clean energy issues, national business group Advanced Energy Economy (AEE) launched online scorecards to help you out this election season.

AEE will update candidates’ policy stands based on public statements and policy platforms adopted by Republican and Democratic nominees leading up to Election Day on Nov. 6. The project will be supported by targeted digital advertising in the nine states to help voters learn more about the energy policies of gubernatorial hopefuls.

Tracking and reporting policy positions of election candidates is the latest step in a nearly yearlong effort to engage with gubernatorial candidates to discuss the positive economic benefits of advanced energy and offer policy ideas for expanding advanced energy markets in each state. AEE has reached out to every nominee in the nine states for roundtable meetings with member companies, has shared its policy priorities, and released new data on advanced energy jobs. Nationally, the advanced energy industry employs 3.4 million U.S. workers.

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“Ensuring that candidates for governor appreciate the benefits that advanced energy can bring to their states, namely economic development and good jobs, has been a key focus of Advanced Energy Economy this year,” said J.R. Tolbert, vice president, state policy, at AEE. “We have found the candidates to be receptive to our message and hearing from the companies working in their state, with the result that a bipartisan slate of gubernatorial candidates across the states has adopted at least one of our priority positions.”

The following are summaries of what AEE found as they canvassed election candidates on both sides of the aisle concerning where they stood on a host of clean energy issues. For all of the races, Democrats tended to side with AEE’s policy recommendations, while Republicans either opposed them or were silent on them (with a few exceptions, as you’ll see below).

Far be it from SolarWakeup to tell you how to vote, but the message is clear if you’re interested at all in building a clean energy future. Judge for yourself from the information below – and then vote accordingly.

SCORECARD SUMMARY

Ohio AEE Launches Advanced Energy Roadmap To Grow Economy, Jobs

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent

Ohio AEE

Ohio Advanced Energy Economy (Ohio AEE), a business coalition that supports a clean energy future in the state, unveiled its five point plan to move the state closer to having a clean-energy-based economy.

Ohio AEE says its plans outline market-based policy considerations that would create thousands of jobs and bring billions of investment dollars into the state.

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“Advanced energy supports more than 105,000 jobs in Ohio, but policy uncertainty over the last six years has artificially slowed the growth of this booming industry,” said Ray Fakhoury, legislative affairs director for Ohio Advanced Energy Economy. “Our roadmap sets a new course that takes an all-of-the-above approach to spur advanced energy growth. We urge Ohio’s next governor to embrace policies that harness the economic potential of the advanced energy industry to grow the Ohio economy and create even more high-quality jobs across the state.”

Ohio AEE asked the two gubernatorial candidates, Republican Mike DeWine and Democrat Richard Cordray, to consider the following five policy options:

  • Stabilize and expand market-based mechanisms to accelerate deployment of innovative, cost-effective renewable energy resources and energy efficiency for all Ohioans. Uncertainty over Ohio’s direction on advanced energy has discouraged investment in the state and hampered the growth of the industry as a whole.
  • Eliminate barriers that prevent Ohio businesses from accessing low-cost wind energy. The current wind setback standards have acted as a de facto moratorium for the wind industry and Ohio continues to lose out on billions of dollars of investment to neighboring states. Removing this government barrier would allow the market to function, driving access to wind energy resources for corporate customers to invest in clean, affordable renewable power within the state.
  • Accelerate adoption of electric vehicles, including commercial fleets, and support charging infrastructure deployment in Ohio. Despite growing national demand, the lack of sufficient charging infrastructure and a supportive regulatory structure remain roadblocks to greater adoption of EVs in Ohio.
  • Remove barriers to investments in technologies and services that reduce energy costs and consumption while increasing customer choices and control. To provide the most value to consumers and the grid, market rules must ensure a competitive market for distributed energy resources (DERs) like wind and solar while aligning the utility business model with consumer interests.
  • Modernize Ohio’s electricity systems by building upon PUCO’s PowerForward initiative to deliver benefits for consumers and enhance grid reliability. As advanced energy deployment increases, Ohio must be prepared to integrate these new and innovative technologies into the existing system and to take advantage of the benefits they can provide.