Lessons Learned from the Maldives Microcosm

This story about a small country somewhere on the other side of the planet and its courageous leader is really a cautionary tale for us all. It makes sense to adopt solar energy broadly, but the market can’t dictate rational results; instead it’s a function of political economy, with a heavy emphasis on the word political. That is, markets don’t exist in a vacuum, and in the United States the pressure to maintain dependence on fossil fuels is foisted on us by politicians and interests of many stripes, ranging from big utilities like San Diego Gas & Electric to labor unions like the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. In California there was a proposition in the 2010 election to undo the greenhouse-gas laws, known as Assembly Bill 32, a ballot initiative paid for by Texas oil companies and a few others, such as International Coal Group Inc. The bad news is that this kind of attempt to peddle influence and subvert democratic processes in order to protect ol’ King CONG is commonplace.

The good news is that people rarely fall for it—and in the Golden State 65 percent of voters rejected the Texas oil companies’ Dirty Energy proposition.

In another example of Dirty Energy foisting continued fossil dependence on a community and the community fighting back, just a year earlier the utility PG&E spent $50 million on a campaign to stop a local clean-energy initiative in Marin County. The proponents of the initiative—called Community Choice Aggregation—had only a few hundred thousand dollars (a slingshot to the utility’s bazooka) to fight PG&E’s proposition, yet the clean-energy group (and California residents) won by a clear majority against the energy giant.

Polling consistently shows that normal people across America like this idea: clean power of the people, by the people, for the people. Again, it doesn’t matter what side of the political aisle you stand on or support or what religion you believe in (or even whether you’re a religious person). A lot of people are realizing that solar power works and that it’s better than what we’ve got. What makes it better may be different for different folks—for some it means energy security and reduction in dependence on fossil fuels, while for others it means a reduction of pollution and the slowing of global warming, and for others still it brings the satisfaction of generating electricity on their own roof and not at the end of some long wire.

“Local clean energy” is an idea that appeals to people across the political spectrum. In October 2011 a poll from the University of Texas at Austin showed that out of more than 3,400 consumers surveyed, 84 percent were worried about US consumption of oil from foreign sources and 76 percent about a lack of progress in finding better ways to use energy efficiently and develop renewable sources. Politicians who don’t heed these numbers should be held accountable, for they’ve failed to create what the people want: prosperity and sustainability. Our elected officials are obligated to act on an energy plan that can bring us both. We must hold our leaders’ feet to the fire of solar power. Let’s all take a pledge to stand with the sun and demand that all candidates in all races take it with us. Let’s take it global and call for all representatives in all countries to resist the partisan and chauvinistic politics that are contaminating our energy choices.

A decade ago, when I was working for Greenpeace USA around the California energy crisis—a result of that state’s dependence on Texas gas companies like Enron—we supported a ballot initiative to issue bonds for solar and wind installations by the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission. We were astounded that 73 percent of the electorate voted yes to solar—a result I’d never seen, and I started working on my first election in 1983, when I was 12. Three quarters of a US community agreed to raise $100 million to spend on something!

Solar shines through the smoggy sameness of politics as usual and speaks to people. We must demand that our elected officials tell us how they’ll support solar if they have the privilege to represent us, what positive energy policies they’ll pursue to stop our dependence on foreign and fossil fuels, and what their plans are for job creation in the clean-energy industry.

We have to raise our voices in chorus. We have to say to all the politicians we elect, from our nation’s president down to our neighborhood’s councilmember or supervisor, “Repeat after me: we want clean, local, affordable energy, and we want it now.” And then we must make sure that these leaders stay true to their word.

What You Can Do as a Rooftop Revolutionary

Know where your politicians stand on energy and vote for those who support (or at least take an open-minded approach to) renewable energy.

Go to www.facebook.com/solaronthewhitehouse and click “Like” to get behind the momentum to put solar back on the first family’s home.

Separate oil and state. Visit www.priceofoil.org to help end King CONG’s tremendous influence on our government.

If you’re a business owner (large or small), join the ranks of Apple, Nike, and thousands of other businesses across the country to pressure the US Chamber of Commerce to change its stance on climate change. Visit www.chamber.350.org and join the movement.

Sign the Solar Bill of Rights—www.solarbillofrights.us—a statement that provides a clear policy foundation we can use as we move to a cleaner and more secure energy future.

Urge your elected officials—local, state, and national—to sign the Solar Pledge (www.rooftoprevolutionbook.com/solarpledge). The Solar Pledge calls on anyone who represents us in elected office to commit their support to solar market development and to oppose policies unfairly supporting fossil fuels.