Last week, we gathered leaders from the nation’s major clean energy business associations to discuss the current policy landscape in Washington and across the country in a special event we called Clean Energy Unites! 

Bloomberg energy and environment reporter Jennifer Dlouhy moderated a panel discussion centered on how the industry builds and sustains the momentum needed to deliver on the promise of recent federal legislation, bringing our CEO and President Heather O’Neill together into a dialogue with José Zayas of American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE), Jason Grumet of American Clean Power Association (ACP), Sean Gallagher of Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), and Albert Gore III of Zero Emission Transportation Association (ZETA).  

The federal funding promised in the recently passed Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), the CHIPS and Science Act, and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) provides a historic opportunity to accelerate the country’s clean energy deployment while also rebuilding U.S. dominance in manufacturing and creating hundreds of thousands of new jobs. Delivering on that promise will require an aggressive and multi-faceted effort by the advanced energy industry. Even with this momentum, the transition to a fully clean energy future will not be easy and will be made more difficult without collaboration and commitment from all sectors of the industry to push for better energy policies at both the federal and state level.

“The Inflation Reduction Act is rocket fuel for the clean energy transition,” says Heather O’Neill (right), President and CEO at Advanced Energy United. Photo by Adam Winer.

At United, we represent companies across the entire clean energy industry, and our focus is on accelerating the path to 100% clean energy and electrified transportation in the U.S. This includes everything on the demand side – demand response, energy efficiency, grid edge solutions, and distributed energy resources – to large scale renewable developers, grid enhancing technologies, and battery storage, clean energy buyers, and onward to all aspects of electrified transportation.  

Working across all these technologies allows us to drive a decarbonized and electrified energy sector. We need to transform the policies behind all these technologies so that more clean power can connect to the grid and move more easily around the grid.  

The goal of Clean Energy Unites! was to recognize that just as the technologies within our membership complement one another, our advocacy efforts across the broader landscape must also complement each other. The business associations that gathered last week frequently collaborate on policy advocacy, but rarely has the leadership of all of these groups come together to discuss the challenges and opportunities we face and how we should tackle them together. Our organization, and those attending the event – including representatives of many of United's business membership – appreciated the time and insights brought to the discussion by our association colleagues. 

Through our combined advocacy efforts, we can transform our energy system. A coordinated approach means that as we’re working across all the venues that matter, including state legislatures, Public Utility Commissions, and governors’ offices alongside regional transmission organizations, and of course, in Washington, D.C. to achieve our greatest impact and our ambitious goals.  

Pictured above, from left to right: Jennifer Dlouhy (Bloomberg News, moderator), Sean Gallagher (SEIA), José Zayas (ACORE), Jason Grumet (ACP), Albert Gore III (ZETA), Heather O'Neill (United). Photo by Adam Winer.

You can learn more about the venues where United works by going to our Advocacy and Engagement page on our website.