Why clean energy competitors must unite — and what our planet stands to lose amid US policy reform

“The wind doesn't blow, those big windmills are so pathetic and so bad.” —Donald Trump, addressing the United Nations, Sept. 23, 2025

We’re entering 2026 on a planet that has warmed by one degree Celsius over the pre-industrial baseline. Scientists warn that within the lifetime of today’s young adults, the world will continue warming by two to three degrees. 

Watch any climate documentary from the last 5 years and you’ll find this is very, very bad for humankind.

The key to reversing this trend lies with clean energy. But in this multi-trillion dollar sector, legacy fossil fuel companies are defending their archaic solutions while clean solutions — despite surpassing coal energy generation in 2024, lowering utility costs, and creating more than 3.6 million jobs — is still mislabeled as “alternative.” 

It’s not an alternative anymore. It’s essential to our energy evolution.

But only a unified voice can cut through the noise. Policy coalitions have done crucial work inside Washington, but public sentiment is still easily disoriented and misaligned. True competitive unity means meeting people where they are, through culture, brands, and everyday exposure, not just congressional hearings and sector-specific blog posts.

Clean energy companies must rally around one universal message with three pillars: We’re cheaper. We create jobs. We’re essential.

Negative energy

History shows what’s possible when rivals align. In 1960, OPEC reshaped energy markets by presenting a unified front. When the 2008 housing crisis pushed banks into freefall and automakers to the brink, unity paved a path to survival as the government stepped in with $700 billion in TARP bailouts (eventually reduced to $443 billion), saving an estimated 1–3 million jobs.

Today, clean energy is under attack just as it’s proving to be indispensable. In 2024, wind and utility-scale solar surpassed coal in U.S. electricity generation for the first time, delivering 17 percent of the nation’s electricity compared to coal’s 15 percent. The industry invested $70+ billion, added nearly 49 gigawatts (GW) of new capacity, and supported 3.6 million American jobs. For households, this meant higher employment and lower monthly utility bills. 

And yet, the annual Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change wrapped in mid-November without any U.S. participation, creating a vacuum in global leadership. In that space, China — the world’s largest CO2 emitter and suddenly the loudest voice in climate negotiations — stepped forward with commitments to address the very problems it helped accelerate. 

The U.S. is seeding its position as the global clean energy leader for politically motivated reasons (namely hiding behind the economy and going all in on AI) to a massive consumer of fossil fuel-based energy.

Big, beautiful, etc...

Prior to Trump’s second presidency, clean energy was steadily accelerating. Data showed 174 GW of clean power already in development (enough to power every home in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Houston several times over), and poised to meet nearly half of the nation’s projected demand growth by 2040. 

The promise was jobs, infrastructure, and long-term economic growth with consumers reporting savings of 30–50 percent on monthly utility bills with solar and incentives.

This year, Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” reversed much of that trajectory. Sweeping energy policy changes aren’t calamity’s cure; they’re the cause. 

Insiders say clean energy didn’t lose because of weak evidence, but because fossil fuels have deeper connections to Washington lobbyists who played a longer, sharper game. Opponents managed to rebrand clean energy as political theater rather than practical economics, a distraction that obscures the real benefits of increased job opportunities, lower costs, and an energy source that builds prosperity without burning through the planet.

Power lives in clarity

The industry isn’t short on advocacy groups or policy coalitions. The ACP, SEIA, and others have been driving vital work for years. But their focus largely stops at the steps of Capitol Hill. Competitive unity asks something different: brand-level visibility that lives everywhere, from a developer’s homepage to an EPC’s Instagram feed. 

Imagine every clean energy company sharing one badge, one link, one truth-anchored hub of facts — a RED campaign for renewables that transcends politics and hits public consciousness daily.

At the Fall 2025 RE+ conference in Las Vegas — the largest annual gathering in clean energy with more than 38,000 attendees — the mood was incredibly positive. A colleague described the vibe as “tenacious.” There was no cloud of panic. 

Instead, it was clear that companies are innovating, financing is flowing, and the sector is confident in its trajectory. It was unexpected, given that outside the halls of RE+, perception is shaped less by facts and more by narratives pushed by fossil incumbents and political actors. Competitive unity may work at closing the gap.

At the moment, the clean energy sector is more misunderstood than fractured. What normally passes as good business — distinct brand positioning to elevate technical innovations, bespoke achievements, and diverse value propositions in industry-specific language — is now fueling the very arguments used to sow disorientation. The industry’s sheer innovation is being weaponized against it.

Most of the companies driving solar, wind, and storage share the same core goals and passions: to create a cheaper, renewable, sustained energy future. But right now, that shared progress is buried under a cloud of misperception. Opponents have worked hard to conflate renewables with “woke” politics, climate culture wars, or niche sustainability agendas. Even clumsy attacks about the aesthetics of wind turbines have been loudly and effectively promoted this year. 

The result? Confusion about an industry that does the one thing fossil fuels no longer can: cut costs, create jobs, and power the future without depleting natural resources and bankrupting us in the process.

Strength in numbers

This is where the concept of competitive unity enters the fight. Competitive unity doesn’t mean putting innovation on pause or blurring the lines between competitors. Rather, it recognizes the moment we’re in: When perception is under attack, clean energy can’t afford to lead with inside-baseball jargon about differentiation, competitive advantage, or long-term impact. 

Those matter. But in this moment, the sector needs a message so simple and loud it punches through nonsense; one that is too clear to be spun, too unified to be picked apart.

The message doesn’t need to be complicated. In fact, it should be painfully simple: 

• Clean energy is cheaper, beating legacy utilities on cost and helping households save real money every month. 

• Clean energy creates jobs, with more than 1.4 million Americans already working in clean power, a number expected to climb. 

• Clean energy is a necessity, because as energy demand spikes, driven in part by AI and advanced computing, fossil fuels and coal simply cannot keep up. 

• Clean energy isn't an alternative, it's the most scalable solution in existence.

Bring the noise

When oil and gas walk into Washington, their pitch is always the same: stability, reliability, jobs. Clean energy has stronger proof on every one of those points. 

If clean energy leaders can unify to one voice speaking the same message, it has a fighting chance of being the loudest voice in the room. 

The call for competitive unity is a fortifying strategy. It means every CEO, every touchpoint, every press release, every interview, and every coalition must relentlessly lead with the same message. Clean energy has achieved more in 20 years than fossil fuels managed to in 100. What can we achieve in the next decade, together? 

This isn’t a lobbying tactic. It’s a visibility and alignment strategy. If clean energy leaders broadcast one message with one voice, the industry stops playing defense and starts shaping culture, policy, and public opinion in real time. The planet has already warmed by 1°, and the runway to 3° is shortening fast. If the industry doesn't unify the narrative now, it may not get to choose the terms later.

Josh Fuller is the founder and CEO of Matic Digital, a Denver, CO-based brand and digital strategy firm serving the energy sector.

Sources

US Treasury: Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) Environment America: Solar and wind surpassed coal in 2024 E2: Nearly 3.6 million Americans work across 47 clean energy subsectors SEIA: Explained: The Clean Energy Provisions in the “One Big Beautiful Bill.” ACP: Clean Power Annual Market Report 2024 Ember: Wind and solar together overtake coal power in the United States