A new non-partisan non-profit in the United States is rallying local citizens who support clean energy but are often absent or silent at crucial council meetings where projects are approved or denied.
Launched last year with staff across the country, Washington, D.C.,-based Greenlight America wants to reshape project permit hearings that tend to be dominated by highly motivated and articulate opponents, reports Inside Climate News.
This skew contradicts public sentiment. “A large majority of people tell pollsters they support renewable energy,” writes Inside Climate. Greenlight America is determined to empower this silent majority to voice its support when renewable energy projects are under consideration by local governments.
To that end, Greenlight seeks to equip supporters with “the information and the training they need to feel comfortable going up there and standing up in front of their town council,” said Ethan Todras-Whitehill, the non-profit’s chief communications officer and co-founder.
Expanding on its tagline—“The real power behind clean energy is you”—Greenlight positions itself as a “mobilization hub” with an “early warning system” to help individuals and local advocacy groups identify critical issues and engage effectively.
A key aspect of Greenlight’s strategy is connecting local groups with national allies. “Local folks provide first-hand knowledge of the proposed projects, community concerns, and tight-knit relationships with local elected officials,” said Jenny Tomkins, a clean campaign manager with the Pennsylvania-based non-profit PennFuture, who recently saw Greenlight in action in her state. “State-wide and national groups bring valuable lessons learned from other communities, as well as relationships with the solar industry and legal and policy expertise.”
Greenlight also offers “campaign execution and support to help local residents become effective clean energy advocates.”
Opposition to renewable energy projects is pervasive and accelerating across the United States, finds an ongoing study by the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University. It echoes earlier findings by the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory—that around one-third of wind and solar siting applications filed in the U.S. between 2018 and 2023 were cancelled, half of them experiencing delays of six months or more. Around 83% of respondents—all professionals in the renewables industry—said they expected worse ahead.
In June, the Sabin Center found a “major increase” in key measures of community opposition since its last report in May, 2023, identifying 378 renewable energy projects across 47 states that encountered significant resistance. The report counted 395 project restrictions at the local level, compared to just 19 at the state level.
There is much at stake in this tussle. The U.S. needs to build over 16,000 kilometres of new power lines and start 6,000 clean energy projects in the next 10 years to meet its climate goals, said Greenlight.
“That’s almost two new projects every day—a pace three times faster than the busiest year the energy sector has ever seen.”
