Clean Energy: MAGA Conservatives See The Light

First Take: Common Ground on Solar and Enhance Geothermal

MAGA Is For Solar Competing Fair and Square Without Any Help From Taxpayers

They aren’t doing it for the climate. Don’t even mention the word.

They don’t like for clean energy to be given incentives, and they especially don’t like anything they might call “mandates.” They want clean energy to compete in the “free” market on their own two feet fair and square without any help from the pockets of taxpayers.

Guess what? Now that profits and price are in clean energy’s favor, now that others have done the heavy lifting to make it so, now that the Trump Administration’s stupid attacks on clean energy, as well as growing demand for energy — including from AI and data centers — are driving up prices and electricity bills, MAGA and other conservatives have seen the light.

And what is the light that has dawned? The light bulb that has finally lit up? It’s this. In most cases, clean energy and battery storage are the cheapest and fastest way to create more electricity and lower prices.

Never mind that it has never been fair and square

Ok, before proceeding, I need to blow off some steam.

Never mind that we’ve never had a “free” market in energy. Never mind that in the US the fossils have been provided over a century’s worth of corporate welfare. Never mind that in the transportation sector oil has been a state-supported monopoly. Never mind that many utilities in the US, state-sanctioned monopolies, have opposed and resisted solar and wind for decades to keep their old, polluting coal-burning power plants going. Never mind that the economic, political, and monopolistic power of the fossils, the likes of which no industry in the history of the world has had, has been mercilessly used to beat up on “the little guy” and suppress the underdog clean energy industry.

Never mind that the fight has never been fair and square, or that there’s never been a level playing field, or that the thumb of government has been on the scale of the dirty fossils for over a century.

Never mind that MAGA et al. probably weren’t in support of the decades of work by creators and producers — R&D, commercialization, etc — to bring clean tech to where it is today, cheap and fast, so we can benefit from it. Never mind that most of MAGA & Co have been, “moochers” and free-riders in this regard.

Seriously, never mind all that, not to mention climate change and air and water pollution and toxic waste — and that most of these costs aren’t included in the current price for the dirty fossils, which if they were, would probably put most of them out of business pretty quick.

Never mind that in their “free” market fantasy, price gives “rational consumers” all the info they need to make their decisions — except, of course, the info about the cost of the gunk that can harm their kid’s health and kill people and create the most dangerous threat humanity faces in this century and beyond.

For the moment, now that my steam has been blown, never mind all that stuff.

Our Value of Pragmatism Says Work With Them

Why never mind all the stuff we really care about, and some they claim to care about?

Because our Climate Movement Value of pragmatism, guided by our other Movement Values like wisdom, justice, and success, says we should take whatever openings we find to work with others to reduce climate pollution, all things being equal. If that means working with MAGA and the Trump Administration, we should do it. (I had to choke that last part out about Trump & Co, let me tell you.)

Solar & Enhanced Geothermal: Here’s What’s Going On

Solar

Now that the GOP has taken away those “unfair” incentives for solar to address a climate crisis they don’t believe in, solar is looking better to many Republicans.

As Politico reported, conservative political strategist and message maven Kellyanne Conway‘s polling firm recently found promising results in five states that voted for Trump in 2024 — Texas, Florida, Arizona, Ohio, and Indiana. Their polling showed that:

three-quarters of Trump voters agreed “that solar energy should be used in the US to strengthen and increase” the domestic energy supply, with 62 percent of Trump voters holding a favorable view of solar energy.

In another poll in Texas from a different pollster with similar results taken a year ago, 64% of Republicans had a favorable view of clean energy and 81% supported a “free-market” approach to clean energy as opposed to “mandates” at 18%.

Politico’s reporting highlights MAGA wants cheap electricity now, and solar fits the bill:

Heather Reams, CEO of conservative energy group Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions, said consumers are focused on their rising power bills — and pressing policy makers for answers now.

“Not, ‘What nuclear reactor are you going to build for me 15 years from now?’ What are you going to do for me today?,” she said. “That’s where solar has its hand up, saying, ‘We’re ready to go right now.’”

Political/policy groups are starting to form to push clean energy. For example, there’s a new outfit that began in Virginia called “Energy Right,” i.e. done right by the right, funded “by industry and philanthropists” according to the Washington Post. It’s headed up by Skyler Zunk, who before this worked on conservative political campaigns.

Here’s Energy Right’s initial pitch on their website:

As America develops renewable energy across the rural landscape, we stand for energy done the right way — elevating our communities to the best possible position for the long term. Take control of your community’s energy future and join our movement to see clean energy done the right way.

Look, they’re a movement!

As their Mission Statement puts it:

Energy Right is a trusted conservative voice and resource for informed decision-making on responsible clean energy development that drives local economic growth and prosperity.

Some prominent influencers also are starting to get in on the act, such as Stephen Miller’s wife, Katie Miller.

All told, there is some MAGA recalibration going on concerning solar. We should take advantage of it.

Enhanced Geothermal

Another area ripe for collaboration, or at least pulling in the right direction, is what is called enhanced geothermal. Whereas Congressional Republicans and the Trump Administration have tried to kill just about anything related to solar and wind — R&D, tax credits, other incentives, etc — this is a new form of clean energy that they support. Dems like it too.

Support for enhanced geothermal spans the political gamut. Everyone from DOE Secretary Chris Wright to AOC are involved in trying to move enhanced geothermal forward.

But why the Republican interest?

Let me back up a second. For us to be able to use electricity to power stuff it must be created. Most power plants in the world right now — coal and nukes — create electricity by boiling water, and the steam is used to turn a turbine that creates the electricity. So if you have heat to boil water, you can create electricity.

The interior of the Earth has lots of heat. What is called “standard geothermal” exists where hot water reservoirs are located fairly close to the surface. However, such sites are very limited.

“Enhanced geothermal” uses new tech and procedures to create new hot water reservoirs.

In the US, estimates from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory or NREL suggest that there is 90GW of economical capacity, enough to power over 65 million homes by 2050.

Furthermore, this is what is called “baseload” power, or power that is available all the time, not contingent on the Sun or the wind or sufficient water in the case of hydro power.

To sum up: it is zero-emissions economical baseload power.

So why do Republicans like it, given that it is a form of clean energy? Here’s why. The tech and the know-how to do the drilling come from the oil and gas industry.

Cha-ching, bata-boom. It’s fracking for heat.

Well, if it is done safely and sustainably, I say more power to them — and the rest of us!

Saying Yes to Common Ground

So even in the most polarized political atmosphere of our lifetimes we can find common ground around (1) more solar right now, and (2) working today to ensure that we fulfill enhanced geothermal’s promise in the future.

In other words, if it is helpful and not hurtful, we should go for it.

One pragmatic strategic caveat: for many of these folks, to be branded with the idea that they are working with “The Climate Movement” could be the kiss of death. So some of us who are a part of The Climate Movement can work with them while wearing other hats, or no hat at all. In other situations we don’t have to join hands and work together at all even as we are pulling in the same direction. They show up on one side, we show up on the other, but both in support of solar and enhanced geothermal.

There will probably be a time in the future where we part ways with those we find we can work with today. That’s fine. But today, if we can agree on ways to employ clean energy, including with MAGA and the Trump Administration, we should take it.

This doesn’t mean we back off one iota from calling out all of the terrible things the Trump Administration is doing elsewhere.

Let our Movement Values of pragmatism, informed by wisdom’s discernment and our striving for justice and success, guide us as we create a just and prosperous sustainability that enhances wellbeing for everyone and everything.

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