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The Conservative Case for Solar

Carlito2000
/
Creative Commons

President-elect Donald Trump appears to have fossil fuels on his mind as he makes his cabinet picks: The former governor of Texas at the Department of Energy, an ExxonMobil CEO running the State Department, and Oklahoma’s attorney general for the Environmental Protection Agency.

But it’s an uncertain time for Republicans who have embraced clean energy. Do renewables fit into this conservative agenda? 

Solar fans like Charlie Miller in Pebble Creek, Arizona, are adamant: “It’s a no brainer.”

Miller spends his time spreading the doctrine of solar for a local advocacy group called the Conservative Alliance for Solar Energy (CASE).

It’s a doctrine shared by some prominent Republicans in the West, too, such as former California Congressman Barry Goldwater, Jr.

Take a walk around Miller’s neighborhood and it quickly becomes a solar sales pitch.

“Mine’s had it for five and a half years. That one is brand new. Down the street there are about four more,” Miller pointed from one southwest style model home to the next, the rooftops lined with solar arrays. “When you go into these houses, you don’t need to talk anyone into solar... They’re ready for solar.”

Read the whole story from KJZZ's Will Stone at Inside Energy.

Will Stone is a former reporter at KUNR Public Radio.

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