We next describe a nonequilibrium approach to statespecific solvation that is appropriate for modeling vertical excitation energies. The nonequilibrium formalism recognizes that nuclear (vibrational and orientational) degrees of freedom within the (implicit) solvent do not respond quickly enough to remain in equilibrium with a vertical electronic transition, and indeed this is the sense in which the excitation is "vertical". There is also an electronic component to the solvent's polarization response, however, and it ought to remain in equilibrium with the solute. The total polarization in the ground state is thus partitioned into "slow" (nuclear) and "fast" (electronic) components,