WASHINGTON — Today, RealClearEnergy published an op-ed by Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions (CRES) President Heather Reams highlighting the 8th Annual National Clean Energy Week (NCEW) and celebrating the United States’ leadership and innovation in clean energy.
Read the full op-ed here or below:
My favorite time of the year is upon us: National Clean Energy Week (NCEW). Now in its eighth year, NCEW is a bipartisan celebration of American clean energy leadership and innovation. It brings together our nation’s brightest minds – industry leaders, policy experts and lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle – to shine a light on the challenges and opportunities facing the United States’ clean energy economy.
Partisanship around clean energy is becoming a thing of the past. Whether it’s renewables like wind, solar or hydropower, new technologies like advanced nuclear and hydrogen, or American-made liquified natural gas, when we make it in America, it is made cleaner. That is a concept we can all get behind. I serve as president of Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions (CRES) and chair of NCEW, and I am proud to promote the work we do to close the partisan divide and make clean energy a red, white and blue issue.
Brand new polling from CRES found that 91% of likely voters believe the climate is changing. That same poll found that 71% of Americans want the federal government to take action to accelerate clean energy development in the United States. In this day and age, when so few people seem to agree on anything, these numbers are pretty astounding.
So, what can we do?
As a conservative clean energy advocate, I have three main objectives when it comes to strengthening the United States’ clean energy development: create good-paying American jobs, revitalize American innovation and leadership, and lower global emissions. It is through free market principles – not government mandates – that we will achieve this, and NCEW aims to highlight exactly that.
Throughout National Clean Energy Week, we will be highlighting how recent investments by energy companies are contributing to local economies, creating jobs and shaping a cleaner future for communities across the country. Georgia Governor Brian Kemp will be joining us to share how he is working to ensure the Peach State is known as the “e-mobility capital of the world,” a move spurred by massive investments from companies like Hyundai, Kia, Rivian and more, which have chosen Georgia as an ideal place to do business.
We will hear how American innovation in clean energy technologies will not only allow us to reduce our emissions here at home, but it will position the United States to reduce our reliance on foreign entities, like China, who are increasing emissions and working around the clock to monopolize the clean energy economy Research and development being conducted at our national laboratories and in numerous U.S. Department of Energy offices and programs are the key to ensuring we have commercially scalable technologies that will launch our country forward and enable us to provide clean technologies to our allies abroad.
Finally, we will explore how the U.S. leads the world in emissions reduction and how we can continue to bolster this global leadership. Since 2005, the United States has reduced emissions more than the next several countries combined, and we are increasingly dedicated to maintaining that carbon advantage.
While we are celebrating NCEW in Washington, D.C., with our flagship Policymakers Symposium, I am proud that this week – and the progress it stands for – is spreading. Local leaders have declared September 23-27, 2024, as “Clean Energy Week” in several dozen states and municipalities across the United States. Dozens of Members of Congress have signed on to bipartisan resolutions in the U.S. House and Senate to raise awareness of American clean energy leadership and officially designate NCEW, led by Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) and Reps. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-Iowa) and Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-R.I.). And this year, organizations in other parts of the country are following suit by hosting their own Clean Energy Week events.
This is precisely what I had in mind eight years ago when NCEW was born, and I look forward to watching it grow. Whether you’re in D.C. or outside the beltway, an expert or curious novice, Republican or Democrat; I encourage you to join us in celebrating the clean energy strides we have made and the opportunities we have ahead.
Heather Reams is president of Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions. She also serves as chair of National Clean Energy Week.
Read the full op-ed here.