The Solar Energy Industries Association and its leadership is writing to apologize to the journalist Julianne Malveaux.  In response to one of her op-eds, which raised concerns about some solar practices, we asked one of our consultants to reach out to her to set up what we hoped would be an informative meeting to discuss our extensive consumer protection efforts. We thought such a conversation would help provide information about the work our companies are doing to keep solar customers informed about all aspects of the solar transaction. Tom Kimbis, the person who oversees our consumer protection efforts, is also our general counsel. Unfortunately, in suggesting that we were bringing our general counsel in for a conversation and in having our consultant conduct the outreach, we created an impression that we were taking legal issue with Dr. Malveaux’s work. Nothing could be further from the truth. This is particularly regrettable since our new CEO, Abby Hopper, has established diversity of solar’s workforce and customer base as among her top three priorities. We have the utmost respect for journalists and for Dr. Malveaux's right and responsibility to call things as she sees them, and we fully expect her and encourage her to continue to do so, even if we disagree.