Clean energy will have to play dirty to take on established players

When it comes to green energy, it seems like nice guys really do finish last. The prospects of green energy have been routinely flattened by the juggernaut of the fossil fuel lobby.

Renewable energy companies won't tap their true potential until they break their competitors' stranglehold on Washington, the market, and the public discourse on green energy. This may mean getting into the mud with the same companies that have been playing dirty for ages. It's time for green energy to use aggressive branding and lobbying to push its interests and compete.

With news of lawsuits and bankruptcies, it's painfully apparent that green energy does not exactly have the best track record in the eyes of the US public. But there's more to the story.

The idea of green energy has been perceived as an anathema to the market, and big oil has fought tooth and nail to sabotage the success of everything from fuel-efficiency standards to climate change research.

But things are changing. Look at the news from Gallup that 64 percent of Americans believe that we should emphasize alternative energy. The wind is at the back of the green energy movement.

The first thing green energy companies need to do is to brand themselves before their opponents have a chance to permanently brand them. An organized push from the fossil fuel industry has led us to associating renewable energy with failure and unreliability. Even worse, we've begun to associate green energy tech with a job killing waste of taxpayer dollars.

If this perception sticks, there is no way that renewable energy is going to get the investments needed to get its feet off the ground. Oil and gas companies have spent millions trying to paint this industry in an unfriendly light, so green energy companies need to organize a campaign that pushes its benefits and frames its necessity in terms that all Americans can understand.

You cannot build a winning coalition with just hybrid-drivers in San Francisco. Talk about jobs, our dependence on foreign oil, and clean air and water, these are issues that everyone can appreciate and will push the case for green energy to a wider audience. Next, go on the offensive and paint your competitors with the same brush they've been painting green energy with for years, because with everything from coal-ash spills to the BP oil disaster, there is plenty of fodder for the fire.

Second, use money and connections to gain influence and access. One of the reasons the fossil fuel industry is so successful is because they thrive in the ruthlessness of the market and know how to manipulate it.

Easy to do when you've got an army of lobbyists with a hand in the pocket of countless legislators. The fossil fuel industry spent more than $73 million in the 2012 election cycle. That's compared to the pittance of $2.8 million that the alternative energy sector donated.

The fossil fuel industry has proved deft at advocating for its interests by time and again trying to dismantle the gains made by the green energy movement. Take for example in Kansas, where the right-wing billionaire Koch Brothers backed a group called Americans for Prosperity which is making an aggressive push to repeal a Kansas clean energy law.

Just like the oil companies built a tight-net inner circle of activists and politicians, green energy must do the same. Being successful isn't all about technological innovation, it's about teaming up with environmental groups and sympathetic politicians to advocate for its cause. While the idea of lobbying might make supporters uncomfortable, sometimes practicality has to win out over idealism.