American Clean Power Association

Clean Power provides resources to its members to assist them in maximizing their profits from investments in the environmentalist energy industry. The organization also advocates for policy that promotes the complete transition to environmentalist energy sources and abandonment of conventional energy technologies. ²

Background

The American Clean Power Association is a trade organization formerly known as the American Wind Energy Association. The organization changed its name and rebranded in January 2021 to transition from a trade organization that focuses on wind energy to one that focuses on promoting all forms of environmentalist energy. ³

As a trade association, Clean Power has over 1,000 member companies on behalf of which it advocates and provides resources to enhance competition in the environmentalist energy sector. Notable members include Google, BP, Berkshire Hathaway Energy, and Dominion Energy. ²

Activity

The American Clean Power Association lobbies politicians and provides resources to its members. Clean Power advocates for a complete transition from using conventional energy to relying exclusively on environmentalist energy sources. The association advocates for government spending to lower the cost of investing in environmentalist energy and subsidize the use of environmentalist energy sources by consumers. ²

Clean Power provides its members with market reports that provide extensive details about the environmentalist energy sector. Clean Power also provides assessments on energy policies at all levels of government to aide members in investing in environmentalist energy projects that are likely to have government support. ⁴

WindIQ

WindIQ is a database that Clean Power offers to its members which provides data on developing and completed wind energy projects. The database also provides resources on related manufacturing facilities and comprehensive market data for members to use when developing their own environmentalist energy projects. ⁵

Political Advocacy

American Clean Power Association’s advocacy supports environmentalist policy that also increases the return on investment for environmentalist energy projects. Clean Power advocates for creating a demand for environmentalist energy by limiting the viability of conventional energy through left-of-center policies, such as carbon taxes. ⁶ Critics of carbon taxes have claimed that carbon taxes increase the cost of energy for consumers and decrease competition in the market. ⁷

While supporting President Joe Biden’s proposed budget in May 2021, Clean Power advocated for implementing union jobs as part of the proposed taxpayer-funded transition from conventional energy to environmentalist energy. ⁸

In April 2021, Clearn Power CEO Heather Zichal submitted written testimony to the House Subcommittee on Natural Resources Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources in support of President Biden’s environmentalist policy. In her testimony, she advocated for at least doubling the budget of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to increase its ability to review offshore wind projects by tenfold. ⁹

Zichal supported the Jones Act and three bills related to increasing offshore wind projects, including the Offshore Wind Jobs and Opportunity Act and Offshore Wind for Territories Act. ⁹ The Jones Act has been criticized for being protectionist, increasing costs for American consumers, and restricting maritime aid during natural disasters due to it requirement that vessels used for transport between American ports must be made and owned by Americans and have a crew of at least 75% American citizens. ¹⁰

People

Jason Grumet is the CEO of ACP as of December 2022, replacing Heather Zichal. Prior to ACP, he was the president of center-left think tank Bipartisan Policy Center, which he co-founded in 2007. Prior to this, he was the founder and executive director of the National Commission on Energy Policy in 2001, which advocates policy recommendations for environmental policies. ^{11 12}

Heather Zichal is the former CEO of the American Clean Power Association, serving between 2020 and 2022. Prior to ACP, Zichal worked in various roles supporting environmentalism, including as Deputy Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change in the Obama administration and as an executive for the Nature Conservancy (TNC). ¹³ As of May 2023, she is the now global head of sustainability for JP Morgan. ¹¹