Last year, Gov. Ron DeSantis vetoed a bill that would have limited residential rooftop solar in Florida. One of the groups that pushed for that veto was the Conservative Energy Network.
“As conservatives, we care a lot about the economy,” says Tyler Duvelius, the network’s director of external affairs. He says the national nonprofit works at a state and municipal level to highlight the economic and other benefits of renewable energy projects.
“We go in and we talk about the new schools that can be funded through this increased tax revenue from these projects,” he says. “We talk about the new roads that often come to communities through these projects. We also talk about the national security implications of it and why … it’s important for us to have a more modernized grid in this country that can help support clean energy development.”
Duvelius says the group’s own polls find that the vast majority of the public wants access to cleaner, more sustainable energy choices. And conservatives often support free market opportunities and investment in national security.
“One of our goals at the Conservative Energy Network is to take away some of the political toxicity that seems to exist around the clean energy and climate change debate,” Duvelius says.
Reporting credit: ChavoBart Digital Media