TUSK
=<div>http://dontkillsolar.com/tusk/</div><div>
</div><div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.313em; font-family: Lato, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 23.8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Monopoly utilities want to extinguish the independent rooftop solar market in America to protect their socialist control of how we get our electricity. They have engaged in class warfare and tried to sabotage net metering, a billing method that gives individual homeowners fair credit for power produced on their own rooftops. They would like to deny us Americans energy choice and maintain their monopoly status.</p><h4 style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.2em; font-family: Lato, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; letter-spacing: -1px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; color: rgb(39, 39, 39); line-height: 1.4; font-size: 23.996px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">FAQs</h4><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.313em; font-family: Lato, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 23.8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">Why did TUSK form?</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />TUSK formed to create a united front through which we can tell utilities that solar is right for conservatives and right for America. We want energy choice and independence, and solar provides that. The utilities are trying to hold onto their monopoly and continue to make you buy centralized power. Solar is the American way and the conservative way, and we’re here to protect that.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.313em; font-family: Lato, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 23.8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">What states is TUSK active in?</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />TUSK started in 2013 to tell APS that solar won’t be killed in Arizona. Now we are active across the country – view the TUSK USA map here –<a href="http://dontkillsolar.com/tusk/?page_id=5" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(229, 28, 36); text-decoration: none; transition: color 0.3s ease, background-color 0.3s ease, border-color 0.3s ease, box-shadow 0.3s ease;">view the TUSK USA map here.</a> Check out each state’s page for more information on what we’ve done in each location.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.313em; font-family: Lato, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 23.8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">Why are the utilities trying to eliminate solar?</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Utilities think that solar and net metering, the fair policy that allows solar customers to be credited at full retail value, is a threat to their monopoly business model. They want to prevent customers from having choice and force them to keep buying dirty, expensive power.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.313em; font-family: Lato, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 23.8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">What has TUSK done to preserve solar?</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />TUSK works to emphasize your voice and show state regulators and legislators that solar matters to the people. Do you want to get involve</p><div>
</div><div>=</div><div><p id="bf5f" name="bf5f" style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 32px !important; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><strong>Conservatives want clean energy</strong></p><p name="bf5f" id="bf5f" style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 32px !important; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">While renewables have a bright future, a curious thing happens where practice runs up against politics. In historically conservatives states at the forefront of clean power, public officials have opposed policies aimed at advancing low-carbon power.</p><p id="10a6" name="10a6" style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 32px !important; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Twenty-six states are currently <a data="" href="http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/11/03/3718675/most-americans-support-clean-power-plan/" style="color: rgb(241, 96, 44); text-decoration: none;">suing</a> to block the <a data="" href="https://www.epa.gov/cleanpowerplan/clean-power-plan-existing-power-plants" style="color: rgb(241, 96, 44); text-decoration: none;">EPA plan</a> to limit carbon pollution from power plants, including right-leaning renewable energy leaders like Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Arizona and North Carolina. And yet, in each of these states a <a data="" href="http://climatecommunication.yale.edu/publications/61-of-the-public-in-the-states-suing-to-stop-the-clean-power-plan-actually/" style="color: rgb(241, 96, 44); text-decoration: none;">majority of adults</a> support setting “strict CO2 limits on existing coal-fired power plants.” Nationwide, a <a data="" href="http://climatecommunication.yale.edu/publications/not-all-republicans-think-alike-about-global-warming/" style="color: rgb(241, 96, 44); text-decoration: none;">majority of Republicans</a> support regulating carbon dioxide as a pollutant.</p><p id="1410" name="1410" style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 32px !important; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">You can see fights play out at the local level. Until recently, Nevada utilities bought surplus electricity from rooftop solar panels at the retail rate — what energy wonks call <em>net metering</em>. The practice made solar cost-effective for homes and business, but it threatened the bottom line of power companies. In a win for utilities, state legislators <a data="" href="http://www.vox.com/2016/1/20/10793732/nevada-solar-industry-explained" style="color: rgb(241, 96, 44); text-decoration: none;">gouged net metering</a>, dealing a blow to Nevada’s nascent clean energy industry. Solar companies are now fleeing the state, absconding with hundreds of jobs.</p><p id="939a" name="939a" style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 32px !important; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The fight over net metering exposed a rift among conservatives. On one side, <a data="" href="http://mediamatters.org/blog/2015/09/14/the-overlooked-dirty-energy-money-behind-solar/205525" style="color: rgb(241, 96, 44); text-decoration: none;">conservative advocacy groups</a> funded by electric utilities and fossil fuel producers oppose net metering. On the other side, Tea Party conservatives have aligned with left-leaning environmental groups in support of net metering. Together, these groups have fought for clean energy in <a data="" href="http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2014/04/oklahoma_sb_1456_why_the_tea_party_is_fighting_for_solar_power.html" style="color: rgb(241, 96, 44); text-decoration: none;">Oklahoma</a>, <a data="" href="http://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/green-tea-party-solar" style="color: rgb(241, 96, 44); text-decoration: none;">Georgia</a> and <a data="" href="http://e360.yale.edu/feature/debbie_dooley_interview_why_this_tea_party_leader_is_seeing_green_on_solar_energy/2859/" style="color: rgb(241, 96, 44); text-decoration: none;">Florida</a>, among other states. While Tea Partiers lack deep pockets, they are flush with public support.</p><p id="1798" name="1798" style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 32px !important; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">According to a poll from the conservative <a data="" href="https://clearpath.org/" style="color: rgb(241, 96, 44); text-decoration: none;">ClearPath Foundation</a>, <a data="" href="https://clearpath.org/docs/clearpath_survey_report.pdf#page=4" style="color: rgb(241, 96, 44); text-decoration: none;">72 percent</a> of Republicans want the U.S. to accelerate the growth of clean energy. Even those who doubt the human fingerprint on global climate change see clean energy as a force for good. Renewables represent energy independence, economic vitality and resilience in the face of a terrorist strike. Proponents say distributed solar panels and wind turbines are less vulnerable to attack than centralized power plants.</p><p id="6e32" name="6e32" style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 32px !important; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">For Tea Party conservatives, the fight for clean energy comes down to a single word animating the vast populist movement — freedom. The homepage of <a data="" href="http://dontkillsolar.com/tusk/" style="color: rgb(241, 96, 44); text-decoration: none;">TUSK</a>, a right-wing advocacy group working for net metering, warns that utilities “want to extinguish the independent rooftop solar market in America to protect their socialist control of how we get our electricity.” Below, a statement from the group’s leader, Barry Goldwater Jr., says, “Republicans want the freedom to make the best choice and the competition to drive down rates.”</p><p id="1eaa" name="1eaa" style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 32px !important; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><strong>Clean power: not if, but when</strong></p><p name="1eaa" id="1eaa" style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 32px !important; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The scrap between pro-fossil fuel, pro-utility conservative elites and pro-renewable Tea Party conservatives could be rendered moot by the steady march of technological progress. Declining prices for renewables mean that wind and solar are quickly displacing coal- and gas-fired power plants. And, with a little help from energy storage and energy efficiency, power grids will offer more and more zero-carbon power.</p><p id="9382" name="9382" style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 32px !important; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The question is not if, but when. Tax incentives, renewable energy mandates and limits on carbon pollution could accelerate the growth of wind and solar and help avert the worst that climate change has to offer. So far, such policies have been met with resistance. The fight over clean energy highlights the imbalance of power.</p><p id="c741" name="c741" style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 32px !important; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Right-wing clean energy activists are disperse. They are not organized to pursue broad national campaigns. Better-funded fossil fuel advocates have the advantage of concentrated power. <a data="" href="https://americansforprosperity.org/" style="color: rgb(241, 96, 44); text-decoration: none;">Americans for Prosperity</a> and the <a data="" href="https://www.alec.org/" style="color: rgb(241, 96, 44); text-decoration: none;">American Legislative Exchange Council</a> are highly organized with years of experience duking out legislative battles in state capitals and in Washington. But, as red states reap the benefits of clean energy — clean air, cheap power, job growth — the balance of power could shift.</p></div><div>==</div></div>