Clean Energy Public Relations
Earned media for the organizations arguing the case for clean energy, not the companies selling into it.
Two different jobs share one name
Search for clean energy public relations and almost everything you find is built for the industry side: helping a developer win a siting hearing, explaining battery storage to a business reporter, building credibility with investors ahead of a raise. That is real work and there are good firms doing it.
This is the other side of the same subject. The organizations here are arguing that the transition should happen, and happen faster, in front of regulators, legislators and the public. Their opponent is usually better funded, and their win condition is a rule, a bill, a permit or a public record rather than a sales cycle.
The two jobs need different reporters, different messengers and a different definition of success. A firm fluent in one is not automatically fluent in the other.
What you get
- Earned media strategy built around the regulatory or legislative decision your program is trying to move
- Rapid response when a project, a rule or a jobs claim gets attacked, and when a bad frame is forming before anyone has answered it
- Economic framing that puts investment and jobs figures in front of business and trade press, not only environmental desks
- Spokesperson preparation for scientists, economists, business leaders and affected residents
- Op-eds and executive visibility under your leadership's byline
- Public comment campaigns on energy proceedings, from docket mapping through submission
- Local market strategy for the states where the build-out is actually happening
Not sure which of these your campaign needs first?
Book a CallWhy credibility is the constraint, not budget
Clean energy arguments arrive pre-discounted, for two reasons that compound.
The spending gap is documented. A peer-reviewed study of PR firm engagement in climate politics covering 1988 to 2020 found the fossil fuel and utility sectors hired the most firms and the environmental movement the fewest. The side making the long-term case has usually been the quieter voice.
A decade of inflated green claims taxes every honest one. Audiences now meet a true statement about emissions or jobs with the same suspicion they have learned to bring to a false one. That is a cost your organization pays for someone else's marketing, and the only way through it is claims that survive being checked. We wrote about how that skepticism now works in clean energy communications and in how to spot greenwashing.
The practical consequence is that verifiable beats persuasive. Numbers get sourced to something a reporter can open. Messengers get chosen for whether the audience already trusts them. Nothing goes out that would not survive an hour of hostile scrutiny, because on this subject it will get one.
Who we have done this for
E2, Environmental Entrepreneurs. Since 2008 the work has been to move climate out of the environmental column and into the economic one, putting business owners and investors in front of national press and anchoring E2's clean energy jobs reporting in the news cycle rather than letting it land as a press release. That included the earned media behind executive director Bob Keefe's two books on the clean energy economy, which between them tally more than $100 billion in private investment and more than 100,000 jobs from the recent build-out. Clean energy stopped being argued as a cost and started being argued as a strategy.
"I Will" Act on Climate. Support for clean energy polls well nationally and evaporates when a specific project meets a specific town. Across a 30-state tour we ran the press operation market by market, rebuilt the argument each time around that state's own employers, utility bills and health outcomes, and handed the microphone to people the local paper already knew: business owners, faith leaders, union members, doctors. What had been a national position became a set of local facts, which is the only form in which it travels.
Working on a clean energy fight right now?
Start a ConversationWhat a clean energy public relations engagement looks like
Most firms in this field describe what they offer and never what they do. Here is the shape of it.
The decision map. First two weeks. What is actually being decided, by which body, on what date. Energy decisions hide in places advocacy plans often miss: a utility commission docket, a state legislative calendar, a federal comment window, a county siting board. We find the real decision points and the real closing dates before anyone writes a message.
Sourcing the argument. Weeks two to six. Every economic claim gets tied to something a reporter can open. Jobs and investment figures traced to a public dataset or your own published research, not to a talking point. This is the slowest part and the one that determines whether the coverage survives contact with an opponent.
Placing it, market by market. The national story rarely moves a state decision. The argument gets rebuilt around each market's own employers, bills and health outcomes, and carried by people the local newsroom already knows rather than by professional advocates.
The contested phase. Where these campaigns are actually decided. An opposing study lands, a jobs figure gets disputed, a local paper runs the cost-to-ratepayers angle. Each of those needs an answer within the news cycle it appears in, from someone with standing to give it, which is why the sourcing work in the previous phase pays for itself here.
The close. What the public record now says, what the coverage established that outlasts the decision, and what your organization carries into the next proceeding.
The one thing to check about any energy PR firm
Ask who else they work for.
Most firms that list energy as a sector serve the whole of it, and a roster that includes utilities, oil and gas, or a low-carbon division of a major energy company is a normal commercial position rather than a scandal. It is still something you should know before you hire, because the firm arguing your case may be arguing the other one on Tuesday.
Proposed, pending Aric: In the peer-reviewed record of PR firm engagement in climate politics, across every engagement the study attributed to this firm between 1989 and 2020, none were for oil and gas, none for coal, steel and rail, and none for utilities. Ninety-six percent were for the environmental movement. That is not a positioning statement. It is what the dataset shows.
Who this is for, and who it is not for
This is built for advocacy organizations, coalitions, foundations, research institutions and public agencies making the public and policy case for clean energy, with something specific at stake and a date attached to it.
It is not built for a developer who needs a project through a siting hearing, a manufacturer launching a product, or a company building investor visibility ahead of a raise. Those are real jobs and several firms on this search do them well. This is not one of them, and taking that work would make us worse at this.
Who does the work on your account
Aric Caplan does it. There is no account layer between the pitch and the work. In his own description the firm is intentionally lean and principal led, with specialists brought in per engagement when a campaign needs one.
On this subject that matters more than usual, because the judgment being bought is which claim will hold up and which reporter will treat it seriously. That is not a skill that transfers to a coordinator.
What sets your budget
Energy communications is priced per engagement everywhere, so the figure you are given reflects how well the firm read the job. Four things move it here.
Whether a proceeding is already open. A live docket with a closing date is a different job from a campaign shaping something that has not been proposed yet.
How many states you need. Energy fights are decided in state capitals and utility commissions as often as in Washington, and each market is its own press list.
Whether your economic numbers are sourced. If the jobs and investment figures are already tied to a public dataset, the work starts. If they are not, that comes first.
How organized the opposition is. A funded opposition campaign changes the scope more than any other factor and is the hardest thing to add halfway through.
Expect all four to be worked through before anyone quotes you a number.
How we measure it
The test is whether the account you give your board and your funders is true.
Was the case stated accurately in outlets your target audience actually reads. Did it travel past the people who already agree. Did the economic argument get carried by business and trade desks and not only environmental ones. And when the vote or the rule landed, can you describe your contribution to it in a sentence that would survive a skeptical funder reading it back to you.
Impressions and clip counts are the comfortable report and the one that eventually costs you standing with the people reading it. The reporting here is built to be defended, not admired.
Testimonial
For more than a decade, Caplan Communications has helped E2 make the economic case for climate action across national media. Caplan is a wizard of the airwaves, sharpening our message, training our messengers, and reaching the right markets across America.
Bob Keefe, Executive Director, E2 | Environmental Entrepreneurs
Frequently asked questions
Is clean energy public relations different for an advocacy group than for a company?
Yes, and it is the difference that decides whether a firm is right for you. Company-side work is aimed at customers, investors and a permitting authority. Advocacy-side work is aimed at a regulator, a legislature and the public record, and it is judged on whether a decision moved. We do the second. If a company is joining a coalition on a policy fight, that is a different conversation and worth having.
Do you work at the state level or only in Washington?
Both, and most energy decisions need both. Utility commissions, state legislatures and local siting bodies decide a great deal of this, and the national story usually has to be localized before it moves any of them.
Are you a lobbying firm?
No, and the distinction matters more in energy than almost anywhere, because these fights run through commissions and agencies where the two get confused. Communications is the whole of what we do. Your policy and legal staff set the posture; our job is to make sure the public work does not cut across it.
How long before this shows results?
A live proceeding with a closing date can produce placed coverage in weeks. Shifting how an issue is framed in a state where the argument has not been made before is a matter of months. We will tell you which one you are asking for at the first call.
Talk to us
If you have a rule, a bill, a proceeding or a public record you need to move, and the argument for it is not landing, that is the conversation. Bring the decision and the date. The first call costs nothing and usually settles whether there is a campaign here at all.
Bring the decision and the date.
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