Burley Garcia|A New Nonprofit Aims to Empower Supporters of Local Renewable Energy Projects

A large majority of people tell pollsters they support renewable energy. But when ordinances and Burley Garciaprojects come before local governments, opponents show up more often than supporters.

Greenlight America, a new national nonprofit, wants to change this. I spoke with its co-founders this week in one of their first interviews about their mission and strategy.

The group launched last year, has raised $5 million and has a staff of about 20. It is incorporated in Washington, D.C., with employees all over the country.

Matt Traldi, CEO and co-founder, said he takes inspiration from the way the labor movement prioritizes local voices and focuses on organizing. He was a co-founder of Indivisible, an advocacy group formed to counter the policy agenda of Donald Trump, and previously he spent a decade working for labor unions.

“There’s a lot of support out there for clean energy projects,” he said. But he found that supporters sometimes “don’t know when and where to show up.”

The stakes are high. The United States needs to add vast amounts of renewable energy to be able to reduce its reliance on fossil fuels and avoid the worst effects of climate change. Local opposition has slowed or canceled many projects.

Greenlight America aims to alert local groups and people of the issues in their communities, and foster greater participation by people who support a shift to cleaner energy. 

“The reality is that most people aren’t reading agendas or minutes of their local government proceedings, and most organizations in the nonprofit space aren’t focused at the local level,” said Ari Appel, chief program officer and co-founder.

He previously ran campaigns for environmental and renewable advocacy organizations, such as Building Back Together, which seeks to support the implementation of President Joe Biden’s climate and clean energy legislation.

Ethan Todras-Whitehill, chief communications officer and co-founder, said Greenlight wants to give renewable energy supporters “the information and the training they need to feel comfortable going up there and standing up in front of their town council.”

He previously founded Swing Left, which works to elect Democrats in state legislatures.

While the co-founders have deep ties to groups that support Democrats, they emphasized that Greenlight is nonpartisan.

Public opinion research, such a 2023 report from Pew Research Center, shows that support for renewable energy is strong across partisan lines.

And yet, as I’ve seen and reported, opponents of renewable energy projects are often highly organized at the local level to the point that supporters of projects feel ostracized and are reluctant to speak.

People fight renewable energy for a variety of reasons. The most common one I’ve observed is concern about how a project will change the look and feel of a place, which is something I can sympathize with, especially for people who live closest to the site. The benefits of development—for the environment and the local tax base—get talked about much less.

One way to think about Greenlight is as a counterweight to groups that oppose renewable energy, such as Virginia-based Citizens for Responsible Solar.

“We’re very much students of the opposition,” said Traldi, the CEO. He compared this to how Indivisible took lessons from how the Tea Party movement organized against President Barack Obama.

But it would be an oversimplification to say Greenlight is a pro-renewables version of groups that oppose the projects. Opposition organizations tend to focus on disseminating misleading information to make people fear renewable energy. A common message is to say or imply that solar farms are a threat to human health—which isn’t true.

In contrast, Greenlight views itself as more of an organizer and convener, and won’t necessarily get into the specifics of what is discussed in local campaigns.

An example is how the group participated in a debate this year in Erie County, Pennsylvania: The County Council was considering revisions to its solar ordinance that contained a provision saying a project needed to have an interconnection agreement with the regional grid operator to be able to apply for a building permit.

The provision would essentially shut down new permits because the grid operator is working through a years-long backlog of processing applications for interconnection. In most other jurisdictions, a developer would get their building permit at the same time they are waiting in a queue for grid access.

It’s not clear to me whether the proposal was a deliberate attempt to hinder development. Regardless, Greenlight learned of it and then got in touch with groups that typically support renewable energy to speak to the County Council.

Records from council meetings show that local representatives from Solar United Neighbors and PennFuture, nonprofits that support renewable energy development, spoke about what the proposal would do and urged the council to remove the provision. The council followed this advice.

“A coalition came together really quickly,” said Jenny Tompkins, a PennFuture clean water campaign manager, who is based near Erie.

The ability of local and national groups to collaborate was essential and Greenlight helped to bring the parties together, she said.

“Local folks provide firsthand knowledge of the proposed projects, community concerns and tight-knit relationships with local elected officials,” she said. “The statewide and national groups bring lessons learned from other communities, relationships with the solar industry and legal and policy expertise.”

Greenlight’s agenda overlaps with that of renewable energy developers, but it doesn’t take money from developers. This is an important distinction because opposition campaigns like to say supporters are acting out of financial self-interest.

Success for the organization means local people show up to participate, and this helps to nudge officials. Don’t expect Traldi or his colleagues to stand up to speak in your town.

If Greenlight can find ways to fill seats and dockets, it could change the dynamics of local debates. I’ll be watching to see how this group grows and what effect it has.

Other stories about the energy transition to take note of this week:

Heat Pump Deployment Has Run Into a Bump: Heat pump investment in the United States has fallen even as other climate-friendly technologies have soared. There are many potential reasons, including a lag in new home construction and federal subsidies that are aimed at consumers rather than contractors, as Shannon Osaka reports for The Washington Post. Heat pumps, which run on electricity and provide heating and cooling, are an essential part of reducing the use of fossil fuels in buildings.

With Palisades and Three Mile Island Units Set to Restart, Could More Retired Reactors Follow? Other nuclear power plants could join Palisades in Michigan and Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania, which are being restarted. One candidate is Duane Arnold Energy Center in Iowa, as Brian Martucci reports for Utility Dive, looking at some of the factors separating the plants that may restart and those that are less likely.

Federal Officials Approve Massive Geothermal Project and Move to Ease Permitting: The Bureau of Land Management issued a decision approving the Cape Geothermal Project in southwest Utah, with capacity of 2,000 megawatts, as Scott Streater reports for E&E News. Also, the Interior Department said it is proposing new rules that would streamline the process of drilling wells used to confirm the existence of a geothermal resource. Geothermal power plants use the earth’s heat to produce steam that turns a turbine. The Cape project is being developed by Fervo Energy, a company on the leading edge of a potential renaissance of geothermal power.

One of the Largest Solar Projects in the US Opens in Texas, Backed by Google: Three solar farms, with combined capacity of 875 megawatts, are part of the largest solar power purchase Google has ever made, as Jennifer McDermott reports for The Associated Press. Google has said it will use most of the power from the solar projects, developed by SB Energy, to support data centers in the Dallas area, underscoring how data centers are driving an increase in electricity demand.

Election Throws Uncertainty Onto Biden’s Signature Climate Law: The Inflation Reduction Act could prove difficult to roll back, whatever the outcome of next month’s election. My colleague Nicholas Kusnetz reports on how aspects of the law have gained support from Republicans, and which parts of the law are most likely to be repealed or revised if Donald Trump is elected.

Inside Clean Energy is ICN’s weekly bulletin of news and analysis about the energy transition. Send news tips and questions to [email protected].

Correction: A previous version of this story had an incorrect spelling for Jenny Tompkins’ last name, an an incorrect dollar figure for how much Greenlight America has raised.