Solutions Spotlight: A Q&A with American Clean Power | Article

American Clean Power, a sponsor of EESI’s 2021 Congressional Clean Energy EXPO and Policy Forum, unites the clean energy industry to address climate change and spur economic growth in the United States. American Clean Power works at the federal, state, and local levels to accelerate renewable energy adoption.

As the United States looks to mitigate the worst impacts of the climate crisis, expanding renewable energy will be crucial. This effort could create new jobs, lower carbon emissions, and build a more sustainable energy system. Heather Zichal, chief executive officer of American Clean Power, sat down with EESI to discuss the organization’s role in advancing clean energy and what that means for jobs and the economy.

EESI: With American Clean Power being a new organization, what are some of the efforts you have been working on so far?

Zichal: We have hit the ground running. From utilities to owners and operators, financiers, construction firms, manufacturers, developers, and corporate purchasers, we set out to speak on behalf of the entire clean power value chain. The truth is, American Clean Power came along just in time because this year will be remembered as the year in which a generation’s worth of policy was made and investments were committed to ensuring a future powered by low-cost, emissions-reducing, and job-creating clean power.

We have been on Capitol Hill meeting with leaders on both sides of the aisle about the incentives needed to win the clean energy race, and we have partnered with the Biden-Harris Administration on the entire Build Back Better initiative. We have found thoughtful policymakers who have engaged with us in a meaningful dialogue about how best to achieve domestic supply chain resilience in clean energy, a place where we want to provide our industry insights and inside perspective.

We have also announced our presence in the infrastructure debate with authority. Clean energy has never before run a massive advertising campaign in the battleground states needed to pass major legislation. We are doing that now. I think by the time it is over, we can look at 2021 and say that this was the year our industry, across the board, became a political force in Washington.

EESI: How do you work to advance clean energy, and how are the stakeholders and members you work with involved in that?

Zichal: Our stakeholders and members are our eyes and ears. Our policy agenda comes from what our members say they need to transform the energy economy. Whether it is building transmission, expanding regional power markets, driving substantial clean energy deployment, unleashing billions of dollars in private investment, creating thousands of new jobs, delivering low-cost energy to benefit customers, substantially reducing greenhouse gas emissions, or revolutionizing the tax code to create a level playing field for renewable energy, this agenda comes from the people who understand the industry best.

EESI: What are the economic benefits of a clean energy future? How is your work key to achieving that?

Zichal: The benefits are enormous, but it is really important to start with a simple fact: a clean energy future is not a distant, far-off reality. The clean energy future is now. This has been a record year for clean power. American developers installed nearly 40 percent more wind power in the first three months of 2021 than in the first three months of 2020, which had been the strongest year ever for clean power, even despite the pandemic.

This year, we have added nearly three times the amount of wind to the grid than in the first quarter of 2019. It is not rhetoric, it is math: 13 new wind projects, 15 utility-scale solar projects, and two energy storage projects became operational during the first quarter of 2021--enough to power nearly one million American homes.

Every one of these projects is creating jobs. The question is, how do we build on that? That is where our policy advocacy really makes a difference at the local, state, and federal levels, engaging both the Administration and Congress. To meet the Biden-Harris Administration’s goal of carbon-free electricity by 2035 and a carbon-free economy by 2050, we need dramatic investment and incentives, and we can get there.

EESI: How does the advancement of clean energy affect jobs?

Zichal: Our industry provides meaningful employment for 415,000 Americans, and affordable, safe, and reliable energy, which powers 50 million homes. We do all of this while preventing 327 million metric tons, or 71 million cars-worth, of carbon dioxide pollution every year.

But this is just the beginning of the story of clean power in America. With the right policies in place, in just a decade, renewable energy can make up to 50 percent of our country’s electricity capacity, creating one million new, good-paying jobs.

EESI: How can investing in clean energy address questions of racial and economic equity?

Zichal: We believe our industry, and the clean energy transformation we are spearheading, is a once in a lifetime opportunity to make our world more just, and simultaneously create a new generation of working-class and middle-class jobs everywhere. Start with the reality that some of the dirtiest, most polluting industries for generations hurt communities of color the most. Our industry is going to give us cleaner air and water, helping those communities breathe better, live longer, and even take back greenspace along waterways. But that is the start. Economic equity and a just transition are not a reality if our industry does not create jobs in the communities that need them most.

We think our industry offers a jobs revolution for working people. Our new economic analysis of the present and future of our industry found that we can create 500,000-600,000 jobs over the next decade across every single state. The clean energy industry alone will require 40,000 electricians and 8,500 metal fabricators, above and beyond the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ current projections. The smart thing to do for climate change will also be the right thing to do for America’s blue-collar workforce.

This article has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Author: Savannah Bertrand