Tor Valenza asks all 275,000 solar workers (plus all other clean energy workers) to take five minutes a day to call their state senators and ask them to preserve all clean energy tax credits in the Inflation Reduction Act.
Don’t panic. We still have time. Here’s one easy guerrilla advocacy thing YOU can do to save the IRA and potentially your job.
First, I’m not speaking for any solar advocacy agency or company, but I do urge you to follow and boost SEIA, Vote Solar, American Clean Power Association, and CALSSA‘s efforts, as well.
Second, while this suggestion is easy, you’re going to have to commit to the 5 minutes a day. If you don’t have that 5 minutes… Really? You can do this suggestion while driving, on errands or even on the potty.
Third, you must use your voice. I’m sorry. I know you’re shy (me too), and it’s easier to click an email campaign button.
BUT speaking up and directly to your Senator’s office makes a big impact. They can ignore canned emails and social media, but they can’t ignore your voice.
If they don’t hear your voice, they think they’re doing the right thing. They’re not.
Fourth, you must be CONSISTENT. Do this one thing every day until this big ugly mess is fixed. Again, it should take you 5 minutes for both Senators.
Ready? Here’s what you can do, easy peazy, 5 minutes, every weekday. Put it on your calendar:
1) Call each of your U.S. Senators. Find their numbers here and save it to your phone’s favorite’s list to make it EASY:
https://lnkd.in/dgYiJG_R
“Hi, my name is ____, I’m a [STATE] resident. I love my solar [wind/EV, etc] job. Please support me and my family by preserving all the clean energy IRA tax credits. Do you understand what I’m asking?” (It’s important you ask this.)
If it’s a staffer, wait for them to answer. Whatever they answer, say “No. I’m asking you to save my solar [battery/EV/wind/etc.] job. Thank you.” Of course, if they give the right answer, then just say, “Yes! Thank you.” If it’s a recording, say “Thanks,” and hang up.
REPEAT THE NEXT DAY. Yep. Gotta do it. It won’t sink in unless you do.
Now, we’re 275,000 solar workers alone, and more if you count wind, EVs, etc. Imagine if we all made this call, every weekday, until the Senators worked with SEIA, ACP, et al. to change the bill to preserve being a solar job creator, not a solar job killer.
If you’d rather, do this every day on X, FB, or LinkedIn, fine. But remember to tag those Senators, and still ask the above question. Use hashtagSaveMySolarJob as a hashtag.
Okay. Ready to do this? Put “I’m in.” in the comments below.
And don’t forget to share this post so we can get their phones ringing!)
Tor Valenza (Solar Fred) is a solar communications specialist. He is the founder of UnThink Solar PR & Communications and host of the Probably True Solar Stories podcast. Tor initially shared thee thoughts on Linkedin.
