Advanced Energy Perspectives

Advanced energy momentum is building in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Last week, Gov. Ralph Northam met with 10 AEE member companies – executives from Apex Clean Energy, CLEAResult, EnelX, EVgo, Greenlots, Microsoft, Schneider Electric, Sun Tribe Solar, Veolia, and Volkswagen of North America. The Governor opened the meeting by asking the companies to share what Virginia can do to help them create more jobs in the Commonwealth. He had recently issued an Executive Order calling for 100% carbon-free energy by 2050, with 30% of Virginia’s electric power coming from renewable energy sources by 2030. Shortly thereafter, Virginia AEE released a study that showed the economic benefits – in bill savings, jobs, and economic growth – of meeting the 100% clean energy goal by 2050, if not before. There’s much work to be done, but the path to an advanced energy future for Virginia is clear.

Move over, California, there’s another trailblazer in the West making its mark as an advanced energy success story. Through new market opportunity and steady, sustained job growth, Colorado is seeing the fruits of its policy leadership: advanced energy job growth of 4% last year, double the state’s overall employment gains, for a total that exceeds hospitals and doubles extractive industries like mining, oil, and gas. All over the state, Coloradans are making a living making the way we produce and use energy cleaner, more efficient, and cheaper. California may be bigger, and may have gotten there first, but Colorado is giving the Golden State a run for its money. 

“Indiana – a State That Works.” That’s the state’s motto, and every Hoosier knows it. What Hoosiers may not know is that the cost of doing business in Indiana has gotten higher due to significantly increased electricity rates over the past few years. If you ask business owners across the state, they will tell you that their energy-related costs have gone up, leaving them with less money to spend on expanding their business, hiring more employees, or investing in their own companies. The ability to control energy costs and sources is critical, especially for companies that consume a large amount of energy. Fortunately, advanced energy offers an opportunity for Indiana to offer low-cost and reliable energy to businesses. At the same time, advanced energy has become a significant source of  employment in the state – more jobs than auto parts manufacturing, twice as many as in schools and universities, and growing four times as fast as Indiana jobs overall.

Last month, elected leaders in the Old Dominion crowed as CNBC crowned Virginia “The Best State for Business” in the United States. Here is what you might not know. Not only is Virginia a good place for business in general, it is a good place for advanced energy businesses – and workers – in particular. As shown by AEE’s new Virginia employment fact sheet, more than 100,000 people in the Commonwealth are employed in the industry. That is more people than are employed in every hospital across the Commonwealth, and over twice as many as work in Virginia’s real estate sector. And advanced energy employers say there are lots more Virginia jobs on the way this year.

Last week, the Ohio General Assembly passed House Bill 6, a bill that provides customer-funded subsidies to uneconomic coal and nuclear power plants while gutting the state’s clean energy programs. HB 6 is the culmination of a five year assault on advanced energy in Ohio, which included two failed attempts to repeal the state’s Renewable Portfolio (RPS) and Energy Efficiency Resource Standards (EERS), a two-year freeze of those same standards, enactment of the most onerous wind siting restrictions in the nation, and more than two years of debate on how to bail out coal and nuclear plants that could not compete in the market. When Gov. Mike DeWine signed the bill almost immediately, Ohio’s march to the past was complete, making the Buckeye State stand out among its Midwest neighbors, as well as states across the country, in going backward, rather than forward, in energy policy.