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

News Roundtable: Presidential Election 2016 and What Will Trump Do? (Podcast)

The marathon Presidential election is over and Donald Trump is the next President. Join the podcast as Yann Brandt and Frank Andorka try to make some sense of what the election means to solar and how the industry did on the State level votes. Coverage includes what Trump’s moves could be on energy and votes in Arizona, Nevada and Florida. This is part 2 of 2.

News Roundtable: Presidential Election 2016 and State Solar Votes (Podcast)

Florida Firefighters Withdraw Support for Anti-Solar Ballot Question

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By Yann Brandt; In a stunning November surprise, the Florida Professional Firefighters (FPF) have withdrawn their support for Amendment 1 in Florida. Amendment 1 is the utility backed ballot initiative that could remove net metering altogether. In a press release on Friday, FPF sent out a press release announcing the news to no longer support the amendment.

Firefighters have been featured in TV commercials on a continuous loop. The message is the importance of amendment to protect first responders and properties. There is no message about the existing building and fire codes that already cover this concern through the many different regulations.

FPF was caught in political turmoil when a lobbyist was tied to the utility group that is backing the amendment. Firefighters and members from across the State communicated their concerns to FPF. Part of the press release says, “As a member driven organization, our leadership has communicated with hundreds, if not thousands, of firefighters over the last few weeks regarding their concerns with Amendment 1 and the real firefighter safety issues related to solar energy systems.”

On a personal note, I have been a volunteer firefighter in Maryland and Florida and asked Floridians for Smart Solar about how the ballot amendment helps firefighters. Here was their response. The group has been quite active online through their website and social media deleting all references to the firefighters, their support and the many ads featuring firefighters in full turnout gear.

Firefighters on social media were quick to cheer their political advocacy group for the move. FPF President, Jim Tolley, did caveat the change of heart with the following statement, “We assure Florida’s firefighters that their safety remains our top priority and this decision, by no means, indicates that we will be any less vigilant in advocating for their health and well-being when it comes to rapidly evolving, environmentally friendly, and sometimes confusing alternative energy systems.”

Also on Friday, the Supreme Court turned down solar advocates requests to review the ballot question. While disappointing to advocates, polling suggest that momentum for the #NoOn1 movement is heading in the right direction.

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