For several years now, we’ve been making the case that the clean energy industry has to dramatically scale its advocacy investment to meet an aggressive disinformation campaign trained against it by the fossil lobby. We’ve found increasing receptiveness to that message, but we still run into people who think we’ve got tin foil on our heads. The refrain goes something like this: “Who’d want to do such a thing to wind, solar and geothermal power?”

Solar now enjoys a powerhouse set of assets that many industries spend dearly to acquire: explosive growth, wide and deep public support, and a base of authentic citizen advocates – many of whom aren’t in the industry but see it as a key part of America’s future.

Senator Robert Byrd passed away early this morning, just days after a study [pdf] showing that coal is a money loser for his home state of West Virginia.

Senator Robert Byrd passed away early this morning, just days after a study [pdf] showing that coal is a money loser for his home state of West Virginia.

Solar now enjoys a powerhouse set of assets that many industries spend dearly to acquire: explosive growth, wide and deep public support, and a base of authentic citizen advocates – many of whom aren’t in the industry but see it as a key part of America’s future.

Trying to answer the troubling questions about how the BP Oil Disaster was allowed to happen keeps turning up the same catastrophic mixture of lies, mismanagement, corner cutting, and recklessness. It’s clear now that the oil companies know how to get oil from deep underwater, but have no idea how to prevent or stop a disaster with any reliability.