Solar and wind companies are dumping more money on Republicans than Democrats as the mid-term election draws near, according to an analysis Wednesday from Reuters.
Political action committees backing green energy companies have plowed more than $247,000 into Republican coffers, while Democrats and independents received $139,300 and $7,500, respectively, the report noted. The donations represent a seismic shift in direction for solar industry.
The industry donated mainly to Democrats less than four years ago. Nearly 70 percent of the contributions from seven major wind and solar PACs went to Democrats in 2014. But that was then, this is now. Republicans received more than 50 percent of the combined $695,470 in political contributions from major wind and solar PACs during the 2016 presidential election.
One of the main reasons for the shift is a change in messaging. Interest groups are selling the industry as a major job creator rather than something designed to save the Earth.
“Solar is creating activity in so many districts,” said Abigail Ross Hopper, head of the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), whose donations have tilted heavily toward the GOP. Global warming economic “is certainly not our lead talking point,” she added. Her group has given more than twice as much to the GOP than to Democrats in 2018, $56,500 versus $26,700.
Democrats are at a loss to explain why the green energy industry is tossing its lot in with a party traditionally critical of global warming.
Republicans “consistently seek to defund efforts to promote clean energy,” Sabrina Singh, a spokeswoman with the Democratic National Committee, told Reuters. “Democrats at both the federal and state level have been fighting to promote renewable energy.”
The increase in donations comes even as the U.S. solar industry opposed President Donald Trump’s solar panel tariff. Two cash-strapped foreign companies argued panels from China and elsewhere were hurting domestic manufacturing.
The tariffs are expected to last four years and decline in increments of five percent from 30 percent, 25 percent, 20 percent and eventually 15 percent in the fourth year. They are lower than the 35 percent the U.S. International Trade Commission initially recommended in 2017.
Some insiders argue the tariffs are helping to stimulate competition within the industry.
“I’ll answer that and say yes,” Tom Werner, CEO of SunPower, said in an April 18 Axios interview about how the tariffs have helped the industry. “This [SolarWorld purchase] is catalyzed by the tariffs and by the administration’s desire for American solar manufacturing,” he added of his Sun Power’s decision to purchase Solar World, one of the companies responsible for pushing solar tariffs.
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