Jerry Cornfield’s Nov. 3 article, “State Sen. Maralyn Chase rails against Clean Energy Fund” outlines the flaws in this local fund that has been redistributing funds from taxpayer and publicly owned utilities into privately owned research groups. This industry, however, is incredibly powerful and is quite capable of giving back to the local community in the form of new jobs and increased economic activity.
We need more, better jobs and we need them fast. The solar industry is creating jobs 20 times faster than the rest of the U.S. economy. These are local installation jobs that pay well and can’t be outsourced. Solar capacity grew 132 percent in Washington since 2012. It’s time our county benefited from this rising industry. However, we won’t get to a future powered by the sun without setting big goals and backing it up with good policies. We need incentive programs that enable middle and low income families to take advantage of this booming technology. When considering our energy future, I urge to our Washington state legislators to support setting a goal of 10 percent solar by 2025 to get us closer to putting solar on every viable rooftop in our communities.
Dylan Claiborne
Seattle
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