ALEC calls for penalties on 'freerider' homeowners in assault on clean energy

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

ALEC calls for penalties on 'freerider' homeowners in assault on clean energy

Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington and Ed Pilkington in New York
theguardian.com, Wednesday 4 December 2013 17.49 GMT

An alliance of corporations and conservative activists is mobilising to penalise homeowners who install their own solar panels – casting them as "freeriders" – in a sweeping new offensive against renewable energy, the Guardian has learned.

Over the coming year, the American Legislative Exchange Council (Alec) will promote legislation with goals ranging from penalising individual homeowners and weakening state clean energy regulations, to blocking the Environmental Protection Agency, which is Barack Obama's main channel for climate action.

Details of Alec's strategy to block clean energy development at every stage – from the individual rooftop to the White House – are revealed as the group gathers for its policy summit in Washington this week.

About 800 state legislators and business leaders are due to attend the three-day event, which begins on Wednesday with appearances by the Wisconsin senator Ron Johnson and the Republican budget guru and fellow Wisconsinite Paul Ryan.

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Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/04/alec-freerider-homeowners-assault-clean-energy

[djean111]

1. As expected - those who are big polluters and rake in the profits are not going down

without a fight. If they had been invested in buggy whips and saddles, they would have been against cars.
I wouldn't be surprised to see that nuclear reactors are "patriotic", and be given reasons why emissions are GOOD for us.
So - much of the world is going green, and some Americans want to make using solar panels a thing to be penalized for.
I think we are Number One in greedy unregulated harmful to the Earth bullshit.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

2. Sweet jeesus, what a country.

It just never fucking ends.

[quadrature]

3. why should freeriders get a better deal than other cogens?

is there some reason that
home owners can't form a co-op
and sign a contract like
other adults?

[djean111]

4. I pay TECO a $15 a month for a Basic Service Charge - whether I use electricity or not.

" A fixed monthly amount to cover the cost of providing service to your location."
How, exactly, am I a freeloader if I generate my own power, sell excess power back to Teco like any other entity they buy power from, or use electricity from the grid - which I would pay for!!! - when necessary?

If anything, this may hasten the move to develop better battery storage. Then, presumably, ALEC will seek to have utility companies be the only ones who sell solar panels and batteries, in order to keep prices high.

Solar energy is a "disruptive technology" - time to deal with it, not fight it for the profits of a few.

[quadrature]

8. the value of electricity to the grid varies by the hour.

I am all in favor of small-producers getting
paid the avoided-cost, of their electricity they
put into the grid.

what do you think?

[djean111]

13. I think paying small producers (I assume you mean solar energy producing homeowners) is not what

really worries the people who fund ALEC. It is the loss of revenue from providing electricity from the grid. It is the loss of revenue to the oil and gas industries. They will fight to keep that level of profit the same and greater, even as demand for oil and gas-produced electricity lessens. Bigger charges for being connected, charges for just having solar at all, slapping fees on the sale of panels, things like that.
In addition, the nukes and oil and gas people will fight to the end to keep generating profit and poisoning the air. This is what unregulated capitalism is all about - just the money.

You think power companies are going to let go of the money they collect from customers for just THINKING about building a nuclear plant? Oh hell no, they won't. They will just flood Washington with lobbyists extolling the virtues of atomic energy, distributing wads of money and threats or primaries as they go. They will post on places like DU about how wrong we are to not want a cute 'lil reactor in every subdivision and farm. They will use things like the TPP to take away any local power to refuse fracking. A war on many fronts.

[kristopher]

7. What's the difference between a solar owner's use reduction and someone who insulates?

BT021!

[quadrature]

9. will the solar-owner be trying to sell electricity to the grid?..nt

[kristopher]

11. That is irrelevant to the argument utilities make. nt

BT021

[happyslug]

15. What has Bridgstone tires have to do with this????

When I google BT021 that is what comes up:

http://www.bikebandit.com/bridgestone-battlax-bt021-u-oe-motorcycle-tire?utm_source=feed&utm_medium=merchantfeed&utm_campaign=pla&gclid=CKql5dLxnbsCFclQOgoda1sAbw

0l5.3529j0j7&sourceid=chrome&espv=210&es_sm=122&ie=UTF-8#es_sm=122&espv=210&q=BT021&start=10

[kristopher]

16. Do a site search

[djean111]

10. ALEC is after the solar panels; if just insulating lowers profits, easy to just raise rates.

Basically, they do not want people generating their own electricity from the sun. They cannot block the sun, so they are going after the panels, the hookups to the grid, and the existing payments to those who sell electricity back to the power company.

I don't know what it will take to fight against this. I do hope that Alec's threat to solar panels gives rise to a greater effort to make better batteries for storage, cheaper panels, and also perhaps create local groups who form a co-op and share electricity off the grid.
Alternative energy is disruptive to the current system of generating energy. There will be a struggle to maintain the current level of profit from using oil and gas and nuclear reactors. Was hoping it would be fairly bloodless, but evidently not.

[kristopher]

12. Yep.

I agree with you - the ultimate outcome will be affordable solar based systems allowing us to go off grid.

[pscot]

5. War to the knife

They'll eat us up , if we let them.

[silverweb]

6. Because... because...

[font color="navy" face="Verdana"]Because your life and your entire income must be committed to corporate profits, you serfs!

Every little solar device you use instead of plugging into the grid helps.
Any future means of circumventing the grid helps.

Besides saving the habitability of the planet, do you need any other reasons to save energy and minimize grid usage?

[red dog 1]

14. Will there be protests outside ALEC's "policy summit" in Washington?

If not, why not?

These people are despicable.

ALEC and it's goals are despicable.

The 800 state legislators & business leaders are all despicable.

Penalizing homeowners, weakening state clean energy regulations, blocking the EPA?

Appearing at the conference will be some of the most evil Congressional Repukes, including:
Senators Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Ron Johnson (R-WI)
Republican "budget guru" Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI)
Governors Mike Pence (R-Indiana) and Matt Mead (R-Wyoming)

These bastards are truly evil, in my opinion.