New Smart Energy Coalition will push for national energy security

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Workers installing the machinery for SolarWorld's Hillsboro plant.

A new national coalition launching in Oregon Wednesday is setting out to turn the conversation about renewable energy away from climate change and toward security — specifically economic security, energy security, job security and food security.

The first official chapter of the nonpartisan Smart Energy Coalition is kicking off with an event called "It's security, stupid" at SolarWorld's Hillsboro facility. The event is co-hosted by coalition partner ReNew PAC, a federal political action committee.

The two organizations want to work with renewable energy supply chain companies, builders and government agencies to promote a renewable energy policy agenda focused on building up the U.S. manufacturing sector.

Desari Strader, who earlier this year left her post as executive director for the Oregon Solar Energy Industries Association, aims to form a national organization that will push what she calls the ReNew Deal — an intentional play on the Depression-era “New Deal.”

Strader is working with veteran political organizer Paige Richardson, the campaign chief behind Gov. Ted Kulongoski’s reelection bid and a number of other campaigns including Sen. John Kerry's presidential campaign in Oregon in 2004.

“The Smart Energy Coalition is pushing the clean-energy agenda for economic reasons,” Richardson said. “Nobody else is in this space.”

With a focus on the supply chain, the Smart Energy Coalition will work across renewable energy industries to promote its agenda of safe and reliable energy that’s generated in the United States and bolstered by U.S. companies.

“If we are truly talking about energy independence, we need to pull together,” Strader said. “Otherwise we’re just fighting over crumbs.”

The organization's website is still under construction but a fact sheet outlines its basic tenant, that without a national energy plan states are "left to compete in a gold rush manner rather than developing sustainable economies, resource management plans and energy security."

By setting up working groups in other states, Strader hopes to expand the coalition and have a voice in Washington, D.C.

Brent Gunderson, president of the Oregon Solar Energy Industries Association said the organization is in the midst of a search for a new executive director and will continue to work on nurturing the solar cluster in Oregon.