CLEAN POWER PA COALITION
ISSUE
The Clean Power PA Coalition is a broad array of environmental groups, business and health leaders advocating in Pennsylvania for the adoption of policies to boost the production of clean, renewable energy.
The Coalition scored a major victory in October 2017, when Governor Wolf signed into law a bipartisan bill that will boost the Pennsylvania solar industry by closing a loophole that previously allowed companies to meet their alternative energy requirements by using solar energy generated out of state.
Yet when the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission’s staff unveiled a set of unfavorable proposed regulations to implement this new law, the Clean Power PA Coalition turned to Ceisler Media and Issue Advocacy. Commission staff wanted to embed several loopholes that would take the teeth out of the regulations.
While highly technical, these rules would essentially have allowed Pennsylvania to continue subsidizing solar industries in competing states – which completely contradicted the bill the governor signed. The Coalition wanted us to direct an education campaign to dismiss these loopholes.
STRATEGY
We worked with political leaders on both sides of the aisle, as well as local businesses, to help convince PUC commissioners to reject their own staff’s recommendations.
Both Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf, who appoints members of the commission, and Mario Scavello, the Republican state senator who sponsored the original legislation, wrote letters to the PUC.
In addition, we organized business owners – including solar panel manufacturers and installers – to explain how these proposed rules would have hurt local entrepreneurs. And we engaged reporters in media markets across the state to highlight the importance of the solar industry as a job creator, while explaining how better regulations would foster more economic growth.
RESULT
At their meeting in April 2018, the PUC commissioners listened to the voices of elected leaders and local businesses and unanimously rejected the regulations proposed by their staff. They instead adopted a set of rules designed to maximize investments in Pennsylvania businesses – a major victory in growing the commonwealth’s clean energy economy.