Pope Energy

May 31, 2017

Mr. President,

During your campaign you mentioned you were going to create millions of new jobs for workers left behind by the ever-evolving global market. The renewable energy market is a new market that can absorb disaffected workers and give them new careers where they live. This is a time of energy infrastructure re-investment; you should be capitalizing on this period of time to retain wealth within the states where energy is created and give a generation of jobs and careers to workers who otherwise may not qualify for the new technology, internet of things economy. Pursing the Paris Agreement will give you power to drive an energy economy at home.

Even coal country electricity generators are moving away from coal to renewables and natural gas. We should help the coal industry through the exporting of coal to foreign countries while, through USAID, finance those same countries to transition to renewables with US made solar panels, inverters, wind turbines and other US made equipment. The Paris Agreement may need to be tweaked, but change it, do not withdraw from the Paris Climate accords.

My company has been a specialty commercial modular design-build and finance general contractor since 1986. Once Lehman Bros went bankrupt in 2008, our largest backlog evaporated and the market has never recovered. In 2009, we started in energy efficiency and did our first solar PV project in 2011. We are now commercial and utility scale solar developers scheduled to put hundreds of workers to work in 2018-2019. Job creation with renewables is real. The kind of wealth creation you envision for America is real with renewables.

It is widely acknowledged that solar and wind suppress the cost of energy until those generation sources start competing with themselves at around 15%-20% of installed capacity. Just like cheap natural gas suppresses energy pricing. At 1%-2% of national generation, solar and wind will actually pay for themselves for 10-years or better.

China, Germany and the EU are going to kill our manufacturing base in the future because they will have zero cost of electricity as they will have paid for the transition to renewables leaving us behind again.

Please do not leave the Paris Climate Agreement. Instead, change it as required. You will appear to be a more thoughtful leader on the world stage and you will need that rapport to accomplish the other goals you seek to achieve.

Good Luck.

Doug Pope
President
Pope Energy

Boston

DOER schedule for the new solar program in Massachusetts to be known as the Solar Massachusetts Renewable Target or SMART program.

January 2017
 DOER releases final program design
• May 2017
 DOER files emergency regulation
 Public hearing and comment period on regulation
• July 2017
 DOER promulgates final regulation
• August 2017
 Distribution companies file tariff(s) with DPU and issue RFP Block 1 procurement
• October 2017
 Competitive procurement results announced, compensation rates established
• Spring 2018
 DPU approves distribution company filing
 Program goes into effect

Pope Energy is a developer and constructor of commercial and large-scale solar photovoltaic power projects. We provide system owners, landowners and businesses with complete development, engineering, procurement, construction and operations and maintenance services.

For building owners, in conjunction with our commercial solar installations, we combine energy efficiency, energy procurement, demand response, energy efficiency, and other renewable energy technologies to significantly reduce your total energy costs. We bring 38 years of design development, entitlement approval, construction and finance experience to our customers and partners.

As solar developers, energy storage, EPC and O & M providers, we bring turnkey solar solutions to our partners in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Vermont and New York.