ClearPath Foundation has established a new niche; it is an unabashedly conservative organization that believes that clean energy is an important issue. It is taking aggressive action to seize the initiative. It asserts that the definition of “clean” energy should not be left in the hands of people who do not like material prosperity and prefer to emphasize limits to growth over technology developments that enable more people to live with access to abundant power.

Here is a brief philosophy summary from their home page.

At ClearPath we stand against bureaucracy, crony capitalism, and big government. We believe that time-tested conservative principles can create energy security, boost our economy, and reduce pollution. We can do this together.

ClearPath provides a more detailed listing of their six guiding principles, along with a brief explanation of each one.

Jay Faison, the founder of ClearPath, introduced his organization to the nuclear industry by participating in a Global Climate Change panel at the annual Nuclear Energy Assembly.

Earlier this week, ClearPath Action, an affiliated SuperPac launched in February 2016, issued two related memos that directly challenged the League of Conservation Voters and its limited definition of clean energy. According to the LCV, nuclear energy counts as “dirty energy”; strong support for its expansion can help a candidate land on the LCV’s Dirty Dozen list.

On Tuesday, I had a chance to chat with Rich Powell, the Managing Director for Policy and Strategy at the ClearPath Foundation. We discussed Jay Faison’s background and vision, the goals that his foundation has established, Powell’s role in helping to establish the policy and strategy to achieve those goals and the current actions that the organization and its affiliates are pursuing.

Forgive my vanity, but I think that this conversation was particularly valuable. Your opinions, as always, are welcome.

I self-identify as a classic liberal who believes in good government, public education, worker protections, equality of opportunity that includes efforts to overcome historical inequalities, environmental protection, social security programs and strong international security. I’m even a fan of socialized medicine; I believe it would be hypocritical for a guy who has had free government-provided health care since age 17 to think otherwise.

However, I’ve lived and worked productively with numerous people that are more conservative in their politics and philosophies. I don’t think that differences in approach inevitably lead to deadlock.

My sincere hope is that liberals and conservatives from both major parties in the US will see that providing clean, cheap, sustainable energy that is abundant enough to share widely with everyone is a goal that is ripe for both political cooperation and non-partisan competition to see who can do the most to enable success.