Obama’s ambitious plans to push renewable energy suffered quite a setback when the key architect working on the project was told to extricate himself from all deals with NextEra, the United States’ largest green energy company. The order came down because of a romantic entanglement between Steve Black, the 51 year old green and alternative energy advisor to the Interior Secretary who has been working with the Renewable Energy Policy Group, and 28 year old Manal Yamout, a lobbyist for NextEra. While trying to avoid any potential conflicts of interest will certainly make the already difficult struggle for renewable energy slightly easier, is it worth keeping out one of the biggest names in renewable energy, when so much is at stake?
While Black and Yamout working together to negotiate contracts for the company might not be the optimal solution for a greener America, certainly less harsh measures could have been enacted. For example, could NextEra potentially send a different lobbyist to deal with Black? Perhaps Black’s place in the organization could have been filled by other shoes. Currently there are no claims of favoritism from the Renewable Energy Policy Group, which Black is in charge of. With multi-million dollar projects on solar and wind based energy on the line, this is absolutely a high stakes issue for both the government and for NextEra, who are trying to cooperate for a green America.
At the same time, land owners and public land users are already saying that the renewable energy policies are unfair in their creation. The romantic basis of Black and Yamout’s relationship could really only hurt the current process of reaching for a greener, environmentally friendly America.
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