For Clean Energy, Politics is Bad Business

Allow us to let you in on a well-kept secret:

Energy isn’t a political issue. It’s a consumer issue.

So explains SmartPower President Brian F. Keane in an eloquently worded Huffington Post piece this week. Calling out a recent Washington Post article about the huge gap between Dems and Republicans on clean energy, Keane says the mainstream media is off the mark:

While it makes for a nice headline, this data misses the point. Clean energy isn’t a Democratic issue or Republican issue. It’s a consumer issue - and, ultimately, a jobs issue. According to the Solar Foundation’s 2011 Solar Jobs Census, the solar industry grew 6.8 percent from August 2010 to August 2011, nearly 10 times faster than the overall economy grew during the same period.

Meanwhile, Keane points out, consumers across the country aren’t waiting for Washington:

They’re choosing clean energy because it’s good for their wallets - and good for their communities. In Arizona, which moved from eighth to third in the Solar Jobs Census’s job growth rankings, homeowners of all political leanings are leasing and purchasing solar energy systems for their homes because it’s saving them money and supporting local contractors. Arizona SmartPower’s Arizona Solar Challenge, which encourages solar adoption as a way to put solar on 5 percent of homes by the year 2015, has already signed on 15 communities. Two of those have already met their 5 percent goal - and are forging ahead to achieve even more.

Way to go, Brian! And way to go Arizona SmartPower.