DC’s climate change: renewables adapting to shifting political weather

There’s climate change in Washington; it’s the only kind that no one denies, and that’s political change. The hot air is blowing hotter than usual, and it’s impacting the US renewables community as the policy shifts initiated by the Trump Administration begin to bite.

The Basket of Budget Deplorables

The predictable response has issued from the messaging blast furnaces at the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. ASBMB looked at the Trump budget and the consequences of the 2016 through the lens of how the Trump election would impact the National Institutes of Health budget. The trade group expressed alarm over a potential $6B cut in NIH funding, which they said “erases years’ worth of bipartisan support for the NIH,” and would “fund the agency at 15-year low”.

They said that “a $6 billion cut to the National Institutes of Health is unacceptable to the scientific community,” which recalls to mind Stalin’s famous riposte “The Pope! How many divisions has he got?”.

Dividing and Conquering

Elsewhere, we’ve seen discussion of panicked, got-it-alone, deal-making between the forces of Carl Icahn and the Renewable Fuels Association — a deal that would shift the Renewable Fuel Standard point of obligation away from merchant refiners and onto thousands of new obligants, in return for a waiver on Reid Vapor Pressure that would assist the expansion of ethanol.

But there are hopeful signs that a new generation of leadership is taking a fresh tack in the face of freshening headwinds.

A New Story to Tell

Over at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, new lab director Martin Keller told the Colorado Solar Energy Industries Association that “renewable energy needs a new story to tell.” The Denver Business Journal’s Cathy Proctor reported Keller’s remark that ““We push the story toward the climate change element, which is an important element, but is there a new way to tell our story?” “Solar on rooftops gives you independence, it saves money for our citizens, it’s important to highlight the jobs that we’re creating.”

A cynic might observe that Keller is restating the “traditional song of the three Es of renewables” — energy security, emissions and employment, and simply advocating that we sing louder during the verses on energy security and employment than we sing the verses on emissions — and that the “song of the Three Es” is a song that never ends. But a less doubting Thomas might see that Keller is in fact suggesting, hesitantly, an answer but far more importantly is asking the question and challenging industry to come up with a new narrative.

The Listening Campaign

Growth Energy CEO Emily Skor: “We have a good story on our side, but one thing I learned doing consumer campaigns for health care is that we have to start by knowing who you are talking to.”

Perhaps the most hopeful sign we’ve seen this season comes from Growth Energy, where new CEO Emily Skor, now nine months in the job, is talking up a new kind of engagement, and especially with woman and millennials.

“We need to take back control of the story of our industry and not let it be told by our detractors,” Skor told The Digest this week. “We have a good story on our side, but one thing I learned doing consumer campaigns for health care is that we have to start by knowing who you are talking to. In a small town in Illinois, they already understand the impact of renewable fuels on their community, but talking to a millennial in San Francisco, we have a different task, and we better start by finding out what their concerns are, and talk with them in terms of those.”

Why millennials and women?

“These are two of the groups that are most likely to buy higher ethanol blends,” Skor explained. “A mother is motivated when she thinks about toxic additives and cleaner air, while a millennial is going to be more motivated by thinking about greenhouse gas emissions. Both of them are busy in their day, but here is a simple gesture you can make for the environment, to choose a higher ethanol blend at the pump, even if you are not one of those people who can devote a tremendous amount of time to an environmental cause.”

“We need to reintroduce this American success story that is good for the pocketbook and good for the air, and provides a 43 percent reduction in carbon emissions every time you use it. We have to recognize that it is not about starting a conversation, there are conversations happening all the time in social media, and we need to become a part of that conversation.”

Why now, why converse now across the country when there is a new group of leaders in Washington that the industry may feel an urgent need to target?

“We have to have that conversation in Washington, of course,” Skor said. “We have a good start with President Trump and his support for ethanol dating back to the primaries, and Ambassador Branstad has been a strong advocate. We need to work hard on our message with all the new leaders in Washington, but it will go a lot better if we are also seeing a strong shift from the constituents who elect them. So it’s not a case of one thing or the other.”

Priorities in Washington?

“For us, definitely keeping the RFS intact and volume obligations released on time and according to Congressional intent, that’s our number one objective. Number two would be a Reid Vapor Pressure waiver that would help open the markets for higher ethanol blends. We’ll continue to oppose changing the point of obligation for the RFS as part of a historic coalition of oil companies, renewable producers, transportation providers, retailers and many more. And we’ll work hard of exports — ethanol exports rose to a billion gallons last year, and it’s an important market opportunity.

How will DC be messaging change?

“Take for example the Reid Vapor Pressure rule,” Skor said. “I love it as an issue, because it is really about consumer choice and consumer access, and we see a number of champions on those lines who normally wouldn’t be considered diehard advocates of renewable fuels. It’s an arcane rule that goes back a long time to an era when no one thought about E15, so they provided a waiver for E10 but not higher ethanol blends. There’s no reason to have this rule on the books.

“Ultimately, it would great to have E15 become the new norm,” she added, “but for now we want to make sure that consumers have a choice, and that we are connecting them when they are making a choice between ethanol blends to their own concerns. Whether those are about price at the pump, or clean air, or greenhouse gas emissions. Those are their issues, and that’s where the dialogue has to be. And what you see is that when you give people a choice, they embrace higher ethanol blends. We now have 650 E15 pumps in 29 states, and major independents like Sheetz and Thorntons embracing this as an opportunity.”

We asked, why hasn’t the industry wanted to make renewables more “cool” to attract more consumer support?

“When we talk about the new story, everyone gets engaged and is supportive,” Skor said. “It has been more a case in the past that the consumer has not been their direct customer, and they haven’t had the direct engagement to learn how to connect with consumers. So, they haven’t known much about how to get it done, that’s the job we do at Growth Energy.”

What makes renewable “cool”?

“It’s cool to be good for the environment, “ Skor told The Digest. “People are looking for ways to make a positive statement, and they can do that by choosing ethanol.”

The Bottom Line

High time that new voices come up with a new way of engaging with consumers, and develop a new story for renewables. What perhaps is most refreshing is Growth’s strategy of rethinking the means of engagement — more tailored, more social. If the nation is splintering into tribes, as many have suggested in this political season, then a tribe-by-tribe communications policy may well be the answer.

It may not be so much as a “new story to tell” but “new ways to tell the new stories”.