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The Politics of Solar Energy Are Getting Weird, Mean, and a Little MAGA

A mysteriously named political action committee has started running ads reminding voters in Colorado about that time GOP representative Lauren Boebert of Colorado and her date were caught on camera in 2023 getting handsy during a performance of the musical Beetlejuice.

一个名字神秘的政治行动委员会（PAC）开始在科罗拉多州投放广告，提醒选民关注共和党众议员劳伦·博伯特（Lauren Boebert）及其约会对象在2023年观看音乐剧《阴间大法师》（Beetlejuice）时，在镜头前举止亲昵的往事。

That same PAC is producing a spot hitting Anthony Constantino, a Trumpist congressional candidate in upstate New York, because someone used his sticker-printing company to briefly make stickers that read, “Kill the Police.”

同一个政治行动委员会正在制作一则广告，攻击纽约州北部的特朗普派国会候选人安东尼·康斯坦蒂诺（Anthony Constantino），原因是他旗下的贴纸印刷公司曾被人利用，短暂印制过写有“杀死警察”（Kill the Police）字样的贴纸。

Attack ads are everywhere in the last month ahead of November’s election. But these spots are a little different. The semi-anonymous PAC that’s funding and making the ads, the Invest in Tomorrow Coalition, is a pro-solar-energy outfit. It’s funded in part by crypto billionaire Chris Larsen and run by a team of New York City political operatives.

在11月大选前的最后一个月里，攻击性广告随处可见。但这些广告有些不同。这个资助并制作广告的半匿名政治行动委员会——“投资明天联盟”（Invest in Tomorrow Coalition）——是一个支持太阳能的组织。它部分由加密货币亿万富翁克里斯·拉森（Chris Larsen）资助，并由一支纽约市的政治操盘手团队运营。

“Playing hardball politics, that’s what our opponents do, right, in oil and gas? And I just think the solar industry has been—I don’t know how to describe it—a little too nice,” says Larsen, the cofounder of the blockchain finance firm Ripple and a major backer of the Invest in Tomorrow Coalition.

“玩强硬的政治手段，这正是我们的对手——石油和天然气行业——所做的，对吧？我只是觉得太阳能行业一直以来——我不知道该怎么形容——太客气了，”区块链金融公司瑞波（Ripple）的联合创始人、也是“投资明天联盟”的主要支持者拉森说道。

Green groups don’t usually act like this, with knives out, ready to stab opponents between the ribs. They tend to make appeals based on scientific consensus, or fears of what will happen to a warming planet without collective action. They’re also traditionally Democratic, but a few high-profile members of the MAGA movement are now speaking up for solar too. Texas, the home of the fossil fuel business, has quickly become a solar powerhouse. There are some signs that the Trump administration’s across-the-board opposition to solar may be starting to crack, at least a little, after years of slashing greentech subsidies and throwing up one roadblock after another to clean power projects.

环保组织通常不会表现得如此咄咄逼人，像拔出刀子准备刺向对手肋骨一样。他们倾向于基于科学共识，或对如果不采取集体行动地球变暖将带来后果的担忧来进行呼吁。他们传统上也倾向于民主党，但现在一些高调的“让美国再次伟大”（MAGA）运动成员也开始为太阳能发声。作为化石燃料产业大本营的德克萨斯州，已迅速成为太阳能强州。在经历了多年削减绿色技术补贴并为清洁能源项目设置重重障碍之后，有迹象表明，特朗普政府对太阳能的全面反对立场可能开始出现了一丝裂痕。

Some of Larsen’s natural allies in the renewables field aren’t too happy about the PAC’s efforts, arguing that they’re alienating the decisionmakers they need most. But the politics of energy, especially solar energy, are changing.

拉森在可再生能源领域的一些天然盟友对该政治行动委员会的做法并不太高兴，认为这疏远了他们最需要的决策者。但能源政治，尤其是太阳能政治，正在发生变化。

Larsen’s PAC is devoting $15 million to go after seven of the more prominent opponents of renewable energy in this year’s congressional elections. That’s on top of roughly $5 million they’ve already spent in the primaries, cutting ads against Republican representatives Ralph Norman of South Carolina (whom the PAC called a “MAGA traitor”), Andy Ogles of Tennessee (“He doesn’t even bother going to work”), and Chip Roy (“chosen the side of powerful pedophiles”) of Texas. A PAC that received funding from Invest in Tomorrow has also gone after one Democrat, Rhode Island governor Dan McKee. All four lost their primary races.

拉森的政治行动委员会投入了1500万美元，旨在今年的国会选举中针对七位更突出的可再生能源反对者。这还不包括他们在初选中已经花费的约500万美元，当时他们制作广告攻击了南卡罗来纳州的共和党众议员拉尔夫·诺曼（该委员会称其为“MAGA叛徒”）、田纳西州的安迪·奥格尔斯（“他甚至懒得去上班”）以及德克萨斯州的奇普·罗伊（“选择了权势滔天的恋童癖者一边”）。一个接受了“投资明天联盟”资助的政治行动委员会还攻击了一位民主党人——罗德岛州州长丹·麦基。这四人都输掉了初选。

In Roy’s case, the Invest in Tomorrow Coalition spent almost $1.5 million to stop his run for Texas attorney general. Most of the money went to ads on right-wing platforms like Truth Social and Rumble. The word “solar” was never mentioned.

在罗伊的案例中，“投资明天联盟”花费了近150万美元来阻止他竞选德克萨斯州总检察长。大部分资金用于在“真实社交”（Truth Social）和Rumble等右翼平台上投放广告。广告中从未提及“太阳能”一词。

“Don’t talk about renewables. Don’t talk about climate,” says Chris Coffey, the chief executive of the consultancy Tusk Strategies, which is running the PAC. “Pick the best issue that we can pick. And in a Republican primary, we should savage this guy for not being MAGA enough.”

“不要谈论可再生能源。不要谈论气候，”负责运营该政治行动委员会的咨询公司Tusk Strategies的首席执行官克里斯·科菲（Chris Coffey）说。“挑选我们能选出的最佳议题。在共和党初选中，我们应该猛烈抨击这家伙不够MAGA。”

Roy received a 100 percent rating from Heritage Action, the political arm of the Trumpist think tank. Coffey said he got some pushback from a few Democratic operatives, who were concerned that replacements for Roy and other PAC targets might not be any less extreme—on climate or any other issue. Without their far-right track record, the argument went, those replacements might even be stronger candidates in the general election.

罗伊曾获得特朗普派智库的政治分支“传统行动”（Heritage Action）给出的100%评分。科菲表示，他收到了一些民主党操盘手的抵制，他们担心罗伊和其他被该委员会针对的目标的继任者，在气候或其他议题上可能并不会表现得更温和。论点是，如果没有他们极右翼的过往记录，这些继任者在大选中甚至可能成为更强大的候选人。

“Who fucking cares? Who cares? Like, it can’t be worse,” Coffey, a veteran of New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg’s City Hall, says in response. “At least we’ll have extracted some payback.”

“谁他妈在乎？谁在乎呢？反正情况不会更糟了，”曾在纽约市长迈克尔·布隆伯格（Michael Bloomberg）市政厅工作过的资深人士科菲回应道。“至少我们已经进行了一些报复。”

The PAC is currently putting $2 million into ads blasting GOP representative Victoria Spartz of Indiana as allegedly corrupt; it’s aiming to target Texas Republican Brandon Herrera for his “abolish old people” jokes and his plan to get rid of Social Security. Then there is the $1.5 million ad campaign about Boebert and the Beetlejuice incident. “If Lauren Boebert can’t be trusted in a room full of kids, then she can’t be trusted in the halls of Congress,” the commercial’s narrator says.

该政治行动委员会目前投入200万美元用于投放广告，抨击印第安纳州共和党众议员维多利亚·斯帕茨（Victoria Spartz）涉嫌腐败；它还计划针对德克萨斯州共和党人布兰登·埃雷拉（Brandon Herrera），攻击他关于“消灭老年人”的笑话以及他废除社会保障的计划。此外，还有针对博伯特和《阴间大法师》事件的150万美元广告宣传。“如果劳伦·博伯特在满是孩子的房间里都不可信，那么她在国会大厅里也同样不可信，”广告的旁白说道。

Other special-interest organizations have been running this playbook for decades. Groups supporting labor and opposing gun regulations regularly try to make examples of politicians who搬型。支持劳工和反对枪支监管的团体经常试图将反对其议程的政客树为反面典型。

其他特殊利益组织几十年来一直沿用这种策略。支持劳工和反对枪支监管的团体经常试图将反对其议程的政客树为反面典型。

Green groups haven’t been as aggressive historically. That’s a problem, says Steph Bosh, the board chair of the Community Clean Energy Coalition. While her group has raised nearly $2 million to promote their favored hyperlocal candidates this cycle—and the League of Conservation Voters’ affiliated super PAC is spending another $50 million—Bosh says she appreciates that someone else is taking a less friendly approach.

环保组织在历史上并没有如此激进。社区清洁能源联盟（Community Clean Energy Coalition）董事会主席斯蒂芬·博什（Steph Bosh）表示，这是一个问题。虽然她的组织在本周期筹集了近200万美元来支持他们青睐的超本地化候选人——而且保护选民联盟（League of Conservation Voters）附属的超级政治行动委员会也花费了另外5000万美元——但博什表示，她很欣赏有人采取了一种不那么友好的方式。

“As a broad renewable energy industry, we need to be loved, respected, and feared,” Bosh adds. “We need to have a carrot, and we need to have a stick.”

“作为一个广泛的可再生能源行业，我们需要被爱戴、被尊重，也要被畏惧，”博什补充道。“我们需要胡萝卜，也需要大棒。”

James Carville, the Democratic pundit and former campaign manager, doubts the stick is big enough. “Twenty million—what the fuck do you think the carbon industry spends in a year?” he recently said to the Washington Monthly.

民主党评论员、前竞选经理詹姆斯·卡维尔（James Carville）怀疑这根“大棒”是否足够大。“两千万——你他妈以为碳排放行业一年花多少钱？”他最近对《华盛顿月刊》（Washington Monthly）说道。

Roy, for his part, insisted that the PAC’s spending had played “zero role” in his race (while his campaign staff put out statements denouncing the “radical California Marxists trying to buy Texas elections”). Ralph Norman, his fellow solar target, warned about the “elite” taking out “the $1 million attack ad against me,” while Ogles complained, “they literally are trying to make an example out of me.”

罗伊本人坚称，该政治行动委员会的支出在他的竞选中发挥了“零作用”（尽管他的竞选团队发表声明谴责“激进的加州马克思主义者试图收买德克萨斯州的选举”）。他的太阳能攻击目标同僚拉尔夫·诺曼警告称，“精英们”正在投放“针对我的100万美元攻击广告”，而奥格尔斯则抱怨说，“他们简直是在试图拿我开刀，杀鸡儆猴。”

“They were the difference maker,” Chris Burger, a Republican political consultant in Tennessee, says of the pro-solar group. “I don’t think Charlie [Hatcher, Ogles’ primary opponent] wins if the PAC doesn’t come in with $2 million.”

“他们是决定性因素，”田纳西州的共和党政治顾问克里斯·伯格（Chris Burger）在谈到这个支持太阳能的组织时说。“如果该政治行动委员会没有投入200万美元，我不认为查理（哈彻，奥格尔斯的初选对手）能赢。”