That Sounds Like Fun! Renewable Energy Execs Reworking Their Pitches As They Prep Meetings W. GOP House, Senate Members

More than 160 solar energy executives will converge Wednesday on Capitol Hill for what the clean-energy industry is describing as its largest-ever lobbying blitz. And they’ll tailor their pitch for a new audience: President Donald Trump and his political allies. The executives will sport surprising accessories: lapel pins with the message “AMERICAN ENERGY DOMINANCE” below an image of the sun rising over a solar panel.

It’s part of a broader effort to convince congressional Republicans that solar, wind and other forms of renewable energy can complement — not clash with — Trump’s pledge to restore American “energy dominance.” Trump and his allies have typically reserved this phrase — along with the slogan “drill, baby, drill” — to describe boosting domestic oil and gas production instead. GOP lawmakers are considering repealing lucrative subsidies for clean energy to help pay for a massive tax and spending bill that codifies many of Trump’s campaign promises. It also comes after Trump signed a Day 1 executive order freezing tens of billions of dollars in green grants and loans authorized by the Inflation Reduction Act, former president Joe Biden’s signature climate law.

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The other groups leading the effort include the Business Council for Sustainable Energy, Clean Energy for America, E2 and the National Hydropower Association. Spokespeople for the groups said members are meeting with Republican and Democratic lawmakers, although they declined to specify which offices. Some are also tailoring their message for a MAGA crowd. “Rolling back federal clean energy tax policy. … This is not how you make America great,” said Bob Keefe, executive director of E2. “It’s how you make America suffer.”

One trend the groups are planning to emphasize is that congressional districts that favored Trump in the 2020 election have seen three times as much investment as a result of clean-energy tax credits, according to a Washington Post analysis. In addition, over half of all new clean-energy jobs are in Republican-led districts, according to a separate analysis by Climate Power, an environmental advocacy group. “At the start of the last Trump administration in 2016, our industry was pretty nascent, so we didn’t have as powerful of a voice,” said Jon Powers, co-founder and president of CleanCapital, a company that owns and operates more than 200 solar and energy storage projects nationwide. Now, he said, “we’re employing folks locally in manufacturing in Georgia and South Carolina. And that is such an impactful story for Capitol Hill.”

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2025/02/05/solar-clean-energy-dominance-trump/