USTR Hearing. There is great video online of the rally organized by SEIA in front of the trade hearing that only allowed about 100 folks into the room, mostly those testifying and their attorneys. Folks inside the room said the officials asked good questions and seemed more in tune with the issue, in some instances trying to understand the nuances of the impacts that a tariff could create. Many predictions about the possible next steps but nothing will be certain until the President makes up his mind.
South Carolina. The PAC, Solar Powers America, is focused on South Carolina and its Governor. In particular, around the 201 trade issue, no State is more directly impacted by tariffs than South Carolina. In October, the Governor of South Carolina directly intervened with the President as covered by the article highlighted below. There are no boundaries around political parties and this is a great exhibit of that.
GOP Members. 6 US Senators, all republicans, sent a letter to the trade representative urging the board to stop further tariffs from being enacted. Notable are the two US Senators from South Carolina, continuing the theme of good lobbying having a proportional result. Also a new radio ad from Sean Hannity on this issue, ignore the Obama bashing (it’s the price of admission).
DC Live. Thank you to everyone that showed up at SolarWakeup Live! DC and our happy hour afterwards. I hope you enjoyed the drinks and the good time with your solar colleagues. The discussions were great and our speakers brought news to the audience, including timely conversations about tax reform. Stay tuned for those conversations to be released in the very near future.
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Everyone Is In DC, Except. Rick Perry. He’s got his toes in the dunes, butt in the sand while touring Saudi Arabia on his America First Energy tour of the Middle East. As American solar workers are traveling to DC to rally in front of the USTR hearings, which could only accommodate about 100 people, Rick Perry is as far away as possible. If you can’t be in DC tomorrow, make a call to your Congressman/woman and ask them to help with the trade case. It will take a few minutes of your day and make a big impact.
America First Solar Plan. Yesterday morning, in a press conference held in DC, SEIA unveiled its America First Solar Energy Plan. SEIA CEO Hopper highlighted the fundamental risk of tariffs, more solar manufacturing jobs in the US will be lost than gained. Also speaking was the President of renewables at Swinerton and a Sunrun employee who served 5 years in the US Army and is now a disabled combat veteran. SEIA also secured additional messages signed by members of the Senate and House to be forwarded to the US Trade Representative ahead of the hearing later today.
Add Tax Reform. I will be joined by experienced tax and project finance lawyers tomorrow during SolarWakeup Live! in DC to talk about the potential impacts of the tax reform bill currently in conference. The goal is to turn this content around quickly and get it published for you to review. If you have thoughts on good content you want to hear about during our New York event, please send me a note.
A Rigged Game? No surprise here in my opinion but Suniva met with the US Trade Rep office before filing the 201 petition. This seems like they met with the jury before filing a lawsuit. Going from a bad business to bankrupt to corrupt financial engineering in hopes of destroying the solar industry was just another day in the Suniva board room I guess, but that’s just what it seems like from where I sit.
Obama Goes Local. At a climate summit in Chicago, President Obama (come back, we miss you) praised and pushed Mayors to lead the fight on climate change. In Florida, a mayor is running for Governor and a big part of the platform is climate change. Glad to see Obama taking this issue on and lending his platform to Mayors.
SEIA Elected Seats. The SEIA Board has approved the election and notified the winning candidates for the elected seats which complement the board seats gained through membership level. These 5 seats are elected by the membership and is your opportunity to ask folks to carry your issue to the board at SEIA.
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Monday Flights To DC. I sat down in my seat to be surprised to have a member of congress sitting across the aisle from me. As we started our descent, I introduced myself to the Representative as working in solar. Right away, “Why do utilities in Florida make it so hard to go solar? The prices really dropped so much, I should look at it again. The Florida PSC is totally owned by the utilities.” As I explained that solar is making small advances, I brought up the tax reform issue and the 201 case. “We shouldn’t be increasing the price of solar, we should be incentivizing people to do more of it.” The member is a Republican. Solar needs to do a better job educating members, so we need to go back to discussing the idea from last month where everyone spends 10 hours a month on political outreach and education.
Conference Committee. Last night, the House voted to send the bill to conference committee which starts the next step in the process of reconciliation between the House and Senate versions. This is where a lot of the lobbying gets done once again, once the conference agrees there are likely to be no changes. If solar is looking to stop provisions like BEAT from becoming law, this is the point where it would happen.
Coal Tax Credit Request. Coming out of nowhere, in addition to the FERC NOPR process, the coal lobby is seeking a tax credit to the tune of over $60billion over the next ten years. The hypocrisy is thick on this one and it’s a topic I will be covering with Amy Harder on Wednesday at SolarWakeup Live!
Choice For TVA Customers. Solar is an underused political issue. A recent poll of 600 Tennessee residents showed overwhelming support for more solar. All three questions below came back in the mid 80% approval range including when residents were asked if they would use solar in their homes if offered at the same price, whether Tennessee should use more solar and letting their local power company buy solar from generators. All of this while TVA, a public entity, prohibits the use of power purchase agreements. I’d like to see this used by campaign staff in the upcoming elections.
New Tax Equity. Listen to the latest podcast from SolarWakeup and my discussion with SunWealth CEO, Jon Abe. In part of the discussion I ask him about his capital sourcing from tax equity investors. If you are worried about the tax reform bill, you may want to arm yourself with information on how to diversify the tax equity pool of capital.
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