Note from SEIA's Tom Kimbis on the 2016 Election

I know many of you had a late night as we all did at SEIA, watching returns come in and probably feeling as surprised as many of the pollsters.

In fact, we’ve just experienced a historic phenomenon in our election process, the consequences of which we cannot begin to truly appreciate, in magnitude or direction, in these first few hours.”¯ It may take days, weeks, or years before we begin to understand what this election has demonstrated about our nation and our fellow Americans.

As a member of the solar community and depending on your candidate of choice, you’re likely either anxious or excited about a new wave of leadership in Washington. But whether you popped champagne in the wee hours of the morning or lay stone awake, there is one critically important certainty for you and the more than 200,000 Americans who work in our industry: solar is here to stay.”¯

I encourage you now to focus on how your company and our entire solar industry can strengthen in this new era. Together, we have a lot of work to do. And SEIA will lead that effort in the months and years ahead. It’s clear to me that a strong and vocal and unified national solar industry is now more important than ever.

We will continue educating policymakers, from members of Congress and staff, to the incoming Trump Administration about solar’s role in energy, the economy, tax, lands and trade issues, to name a few.”¯We also will build on our highly effective work in the states, where a President Trump may direct some of the energy policy discussions.

I’ve been asked many times since the early hours of this morning what the election means for our investment tax credit (ITC). Many are awakening to the great fortune and hard work of SEIA staff in driving a five-year extension last year, rather than waiting until the lame duck period that’s beginning today, weeks before the old ITC was set to expire.

The question on many minds is – will the ITC be repealed? While our conversations over the past few months with the Trump transition team indicate that they have not put a bullseye specifically on the ITC, any effort to reform the federal tax code endangers the ITC.

Comprehensive tax reform has long been a top priority for Republicans in Congress, and we will soon have a president and a Speaker of the House who have both strongly expressed desires to tackle the first major tax reform in thirty years.”¯ That is a herculean lift even when one party controls both the Presidency and the Congress, but it is a possibility we face.

I can tell you this. SEIA will do everything possible to defend the ITC and win critical battles to open up new state markets and defend existing ones.”¯ We have an outstanding team and membership base. And we have a great product to showcase in solar: a technology growing across all fifty states and creating hundreds of thousands of jobs, gigawatts of new power, stronger national security, cleaner air and water, a more robust energy system and more competitive consumer choices.

Change is hard ground.”¯ But we will persevere and thrive together.”¯ Now more than ever we need to show our collective strength and vision. We need companies not yet part of our movement to step up and join us. And we need to enter the next four years with eyes open to challenges and minds open to opportunities.

Expect to hear more soon from me and other SEIA leaders as we navigate through the coming transition. In the meantime, recognize that it is time to double down on solar advocacy and plan accordingly.

As always, thank you for all you do for solar and for your membership in SEIA.