In Sunny Arizona, A Crucial Vote on the Future of a Solar-Powered Nation

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http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/11/14-7



Are state-level utility companies trying to crush the solar revolution before it goes national?

In Sunny Arizona, A Crucial Vote on the Future of a Solar-Powered Nation
- Jon Queally, staff writer
Published on Thursday, November 14, 2013 by Common Dreams

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And, with the second largest rooftop solar energy market in the United States, an otherwise ignored panel discussion by Arizona's utility commission on Thursday has earned the intense attention of solar energy's biggest backers and the industry's largest companies.

On Wednesday, over a thousand people reportedly attended a rally outside the Arizona Corporation Commission offices in Phoenix to make their voices heard. Experts on the issue say that a pending announcement by the five-member panel, should it favor demands being made by the utilities, could end the rapidly expanding 'rooftop revolution' that has captured the state in recent years.

“It was all hands on deck, the people represented there were solar workers, companies were reaching out their employees, solar customers were there, environmental advocates,” said Rosalind Jackson, communications director for Vote Solar Initiative, who helped organize the turnout. “It was a pretty broad spectrum of supporters.”

The solar fight in Arizona pitches decentralized energy supporters—including homeowners with rooftop arrays and those who sell, lease and install them—against the major utility companies in the state who are demanding either a hefty new tax on solar customers who provide energy to the grid or a decrease in the rate at which they are paid.