Jeffrey Clark, President of the Advanced Power Alliance, today delivered the keynote address at the Nebraska Wind and Solar Conference in Lincoln, Nebraska. He used the occasion to introduce a vision that will guide the organization’s work in the years ahead: All-American Energy from ALL American States.
Clark’s central argument was simple. Every state in America has energy resources it can harness to meet the nation’s growing energy needs, and national energy policy should let every state compete. Wind, solar, natural gas, nuclear, geothermal, hydro, and biofuels, and more, all have a role to play.
“Policy that makes some states energy producers while demanding that other states be energy consumers is shortsighted, unwise, and unfair,” Clark told the audience of landowners, community leaders, elected officials, and advocates.
Clark described a turning point for the American electric grid. After two decades of flat demand, forecasters now expect electricity use in the United States to grow 25 percent by 2030, driven by returning manufacturing, electrification, population growth, and data center demand. Wholesale electricity prices rose sharply last year, and families and businesses are feeling the strain.
Wind, solar, and battery storage are already answering that call. In 2025, they made up 91 percent of all new generating capacity added to the American grid. Clark noted that these resources are fast to build, operate in all 50 states, and are overwhelmingly located in congressional districts represented by Republicans. “This is not a partisan project,” he said. “It is a red, white, and blue project.”
Clark pointed to a clear pattern across the region. States that produce their own power, including Nebraska’s neighbors Iowa, South Dakota, and Kansas, pay well below the national average for electricity. States that limit their own resources pay far more. “States that produce their own power pay less for it,” he said. “It is that simple.”
Clark also warned that a growing share of the obstacles facing American energy are self-inflicted. These include a federal freeze on Defense Department reviews of wind projects, which Advanced Power Alliance and its partners have challenged in federal court; abrupt changes to federal tax credits; tariffs that raise equipment costs; and a national shortage of new transmission.
To put every state back in the game, Clark outlined four policy principles:
- Technology-neutral permitting that reviews every energy project on its merits, on a clear timeline, under rules that do not change midstream.
- An interstate highway system for electrons, with interregional transmission that lets producing states deliver power where demand is growing.
- Access to power for large customers, allowing them to help build the generation they need while paying for the grid they use, so households are not left bearing the cost.
- Siting policies that respect communities and protect private property rights, including a landowner’s right to diversify income through wind, solar, and storage.
“Energy is too important for politics,” Clark said in closing. “Your voice will help keep the politics out and the power up.”
The Nebraska address is the first step in a broader dialogue. In the months ahead, Advanced Power Alliance will work with members, landowners, communities, and policymakers across its footprint to build support for an energy policy that lets every American state contribute to American energy abundance.
All-American Energy from ALL American States.
Read the full remarks: All-American Energy from ALL American States (Remarks)
View the presentation slides: All-American Energy from ALL American States (Slides)