Solar Industry Has Bright Outlook, Despite Trump's Climate Change Executive Order
When news came down of President Donald Trump's executive order on climate change, Joy Seitz, CEO of American Solar & Roofing, had a pithy sales pitch for her company’s Facebook followers.
"Come up with your own Clean Power Plan and go solar today. You have a little utility plant on your home,” Seitz said on a cloudless morning in one of the growing suburbs west of Phoenix.
Keeping with his campaign pledge, Trump signed a broad executive order last month that seeks to scrap climate change policies -- from requirements that the federal government calculate the “social cost" of carbon to the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan, which would have significantly cut emissions from power plants.
Nearby, her employees scramble on the roof of a new home, which, in a few days, will have solar panels on it.
“I’ve been here three years," said Jose Leon, solar installer and one of Seitz employees. "It's a really good industry to be in and it’s only going to get bigger."
Nationally, solar jobs grew 25 percent last year. Seitz is optimistic that momentum will continue in Arizona, which has the third most capacity in the country.
“The market is pushing renewable energy and consumers are pushing renewable energy,” Seitz said.
She credits technology and the rapidly falling price of solar. But policies in the state have also helped.
Many solar customers are reimbursed for the extra power they produce and more than a decade ago Arizona set a goal that 15 percent of its energy comes from renewables by 2025.
So is Seitz worried about her business with Trump’s new order?
“The train has left the station and that’s not any of a concern to me,” Seitz said.
For evidence, go to nearby Pebble Creek, a retirement community where nearly 30 percent of homes have solar.
“Across the street from me, I think, in a row of 14 houses, 13 of those houses have rooftop solar," Dru Bacon said.
Bacon has become a sort of local guru for folks considering solar, even leading a non-profit, called the Conservative Alliance for Solar Energy.
“Politics never enter in when I’m working with people. It’s all about how much is it going to cost? How much am I going to save?” he said.
But now that President Trump is rolling back policies aimed at reducing carbon emissions, Bacon said progress on renewables could slow.
“I think the electric utilities will continue to install solar and wind, probably not quite to the extent they were doing before the rollback,” he said.
Bacon worries the state’s policymakers might also pull back.
Andy Tobin is one of the five elected officials, all Republican, who oversee Arizona’s public utilities.
He supports Trump’s order.
“It’s a breath of fresh air," Tobin said. "I think this president is more interested in about states trying to help themselves, and help manage themselves out of problems."
Tobin is dismayed about the possible closure of the West’s largest coal-fired plant, the Navajo Generating Station, which has helped power Arizona for decades. But he said that doesn’t mean he’s against renewables.
“At the end of the day whose responsibility is it to make sure the power lights are still on? Well, it’s ours," Tobin said. "So, yes, I want to see more renewables. I love the idea of technology. These are all good pieces."
Some in the industry also think the policies Trump is now trying to reverse aren’t all that necessary in a place like Arizona.
“The Clean Power Plan may have been a way to accelerate getting to the future, but it was going to be very expensive. It was going to have lots of challenges over time,” said attorney Court Rich, who represents renewable energy companies.
The best thing the Trump administration can do for the solar industry?
Rich said: get out of the way and let the free market flourish.
