The Midwest Renewable Energy Association plays a fundamental role within environmental governance in the region, specifically promoting solar systems. They work above myriad smaller actors, such as Grow Solar, to ready the area for the transition to a more open energy market, where decentralized sustainable energy sources are viable options for consumers. The manner in which these groups work towards this goal is detailed in the previous post Grow Solar - A Midwest Partnership to Move Markets. Grow Solar and the MREA especially are excellent examples of the emerging place of environmental governance in society, as illustrated by the eight hypothesis posited by JP Evans. Those that appear most immediately relevant follow.
There is very little that can be done above the personal or community level to promote sustainability without in some way interacting with the market. American-style capitalism guides the formation of the public's feelings on alternative energy in all directions. Some see an unnecessary expense in the short term with an uncertain future, some a necessary transition to a more sustainable future. Some simply see room for innovation and the profit innovation and change can bring. No matter what the personal opinion on renewables, people as a whole like to have a variety of choice, and, indeed, that choice contributes to healthy markets. Grow Solar working to clarify and unify regulations and to ease restrictive or punitive fees, as an example, go a long way to opening a previously, somewhat artificially, closed market to a new competitor. Evans is correct in that these systems are not going to disappear any time soon, and making the sometimes hostile marketplace more friendly to renewables is necessary now, before the monopolies can do more to keep disruptive technology out of the market.
It seems that changes in cultural values do not amount to much if there is no infrastructure, or even a hostile one, to fuel change. Similarly, attempting to make major shifts like the switch to renewables without the private sector and the priorities of the people being ready amounts to top-down ordering of change. This is always unpopular and has many problems. They work to educate the populace and leaders alike, to prepare the private sector with job training and the like, and to ease civic impediments and hassles. The variety of approaches and vectors of action makes the work these groups do more robust and likely more effective. It simply will not do any good to have trained PV solar technicians if people are scared away from installing a rooftop system by zoning regulations and fees, and vice versa.
The interaction of these two organization has a necessarily dualistic structure. The MREA helps to coordinate and facilitate communication between many, many groups across a very wide area. Grow Solar works on a more local level. Each is needed to ensure effectiveness of the other. The MREA's regional efforts help ensure that groups like Grow Solar are on the same page across distances. They have a way to share information, tactics, and people easily, as well as having the larger, more unified body needed for interacting with organizations as large as huge corporations and the various federal and state government agencies. In turn, the finer resolution focus of Grow Solar makes any work they do far more effective than if the MREA attempted to do it themselves. The two scales are necessary to ensure they have a loud enough voice but still enough clarity to account for local differences.
Alternative energy plans involve public infrastructure. Just as there is no way to escape the marketplace above the personal level, there is no way to work in energy without interacting with the government. Fossil fuel companies and energy monopolies like WE Energies generally have the backing of the state, and they not going to just idly allow decentralized energy production disrupt their profits. In this area, the government has a very important role to play in protecting a vulnerable fledgling industry from the predations of the existing hegemony. WE Energies's attempt to implement an apparently punitive surcharge for home-generating customers clearly shows the sort of tactics that can be used to dissuade people from making even a partial switch to green energy. Anti-competitive actions like that are inimical to a healthy marketplace and are exactly the sort of thing the government is suited to protect against. The tricky area is in ensuring the pendulum does not swing to far in the other direction, since in many areas regulations and taxes are being used to squelch the growth of renewables. Again, this is a reason why Grow Solar's approach is extremely important.
Overall, the future is not as dark as it may seem to some. The multifaceted and wide-ranging approach of the MREA is helping to make serious headway on a problem that will otherwise only get worse as time go on. It is a positive sign that, instead of just fighting against negative things in the present situation, they are working also to prepare for the future. The extensive job training and certification plans the MREA coordinates through smaller groups, along with regulatory reform, are surely a major way of moving forward and making it so that not only are the renewable energy sources possible to implement, but that they are actually within reach.
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