The damage caused by the Solyndra was greatest because it was fully leveraged by clean energy opponents over roughly 18 months. The story quickly became a truism among national business and policy media even though the federal loan guarantee program in question turned a profit of several billion dollars for US taxpayers.

Wired’s piece was less leveraged, and the episode of 60 Minutes drew a fierce, coordinated clean-energy sector response that broadly matched the attention the original story garnered. It remains our one success story.

The pandemic, recession and election have dominated our attention span in 2020, making it difficult for outlets that act as fossil fuel boosters to leverage the Moore film. But they have tried.

While Moore’s film was being widely panned by experts and news outlets for being divorced from basic business reality – Newsweek called it an “an ill-premised, intellectually dishonest stunt” and Vox “a nihilistic take, riddled with errors” – anti-renewables pot shots were being taken in the Wall Street Journal, Breitbart and by fossil fuel’s go-to errand boy, Robert Bryce .

During all this, the five leading clean-energy advocacy organisations posted a total of three blogs and five social media amplification posts. The rebuttal can was carried by individual environmental actors: climatologist Michael Mann, who was viciously attacked during Climategate; documentary filmmaker Josh Fox; and, environmentalist Bill McKibben.

And as for US clean-energy trade associations – the American Council on Renewable Energy (Acore): one blog, three socials; the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA): one blog; and Climate Nexus: one article, two socials. The Solar Energy Industries Association and Advanced Energy Economy did not muster a response.

In their defense, AWEA, SEIA and Acore were focused on getting pro-renewables policies covered by the huge stimulus bills passed earlier this year. Even with hindsight, it’s hard to argue with their priorities. But there’s no getting around the fact that our industry was far from vociferous in the face of Moore’s attack-dog ‘documentary’.

This “response disparity” suggest we got lucky with the Moore film, which is different than being prepared, skilled and proactive in our own defense. Market disruption is a full-contract sport, and this game is far from over. Whether Trump or Biden is in the White House in January, we need to fix our readiness level, and soon.

· Mike Casey is president of Washington DC-based clean-tech PR agency Tigercomm. Read his earlier columns for Recharge here.

'Whether it's Trump or Biden, clean-energy advocates need to fix their readiness level'