Advanced Power Alliance (APA)

History

According to the Oklahoma Municipal League, up until at least 2003 the Advanced Power Alliance was known as the Wind Coalition. ³ APA was formally founded in 2004 in Austin, Texas. ⁴

Activities

In its tax filings, the Advanced Power Alliance describes its mission solely as “wind energy promotion.” ⁵  However, the organization’s website also promotes solar, hydrogen, and nuclear energy. ¹ APA promotes a variety of non-fossil fuel-based energies in 11 states in the southern and central United States, including Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Texas. ² APA focuses its operations on states within the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) and the Southwest Power Pool (SPP). ⁶

Within these states, APA advocates for green energy legislation that supports onshore and offshore wind, solar, nuclear, and hydrogen energy as well as improvements to the reliability of the electrical grid and increased energy storage technologies. ⁶ In Texas, for example, APA claims to have successfully lobbied for increased weather-dependent energy generation and storage. ⁷

For each of the states in which it operates, APA provides resources promoting the positive economic impact of green energy projects and publishes news updates on green energy projects. ² APA also provides a library of resources, reports, and white papers from external organizations studying the impact of wind, solar, and other green energy projects. These include an economic impact report claiming that Nebraska’s $3.2 billion investment in wind power saved water, reduced CO2 emissions, and created jobs for farmers and ranchers; a report on how specialty crops can be raised under solar panels; and a clean power map showing the capacity, taxes, and landowner payments of wind, solar, and energy storage projects in Texas. ⁸

Members

APA represents a variety of energy companies, investors, and consumer advocacy organizations. These include Adapture Renewables, AES, American Clean Power, APEX Clean Energy, Avangrid, Avantus, BP, Broadwind, Brookfield Renewable U.S., Capital Power, CIS, Clearway, Constellation, Cypress Creek Renewables, Drax, Duke Energy, EDF renewables, EDP renewables, Electric Power Engineers, Enbridge, Enel, Engie, Eolian, GE Renewable Energy, Google, Greenalia, Gridstor, Grid United, Innergex, Intersect Power, Invenergy, ITC, Leeward renewable energy, Longroad Energy, National Grid Renewables, Next Era Energy Resources, Nova Clean Energy, Olsson, Omega, Onward Energy, Orte, Pattern, PineGate Renewables, REWA, Savion, Scout Clean Energy, Southern Power, Terra-Gen, and Vestas. ⁹

People

The president and CEO of APA is Jeff Clark. He was previously the senior vice president of governmental affairs at ComTIA in Washington, D.C., a computer technology and information-technology trade association. Clark also previously worked as the executive director of the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB). ¹⁰