Solar Energy

<p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">see solar 2 10/15</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">11 co 9 states want surcharge</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://insideclimatenews.org/news/14082015/some-utilities-want-surcharge-let-sunshine">http://insideclimatenews.org/news/14082015/some-utilities-want-surcharge-let-sunshine</a></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">http://insideclimatenews.org/news/10072015/solar-breakthrough-could-be-way-renters</font></p><h1 class="title" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; letter-spacing: -1px; color: rgb(35, 31, 32); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Solar Breakthrough Could Be on the Way for Renters</font></h1><div class="region region-content" style="color: rgb(35, 31, 32); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div id="block-system-main" class="block block-system "><div class="content"><div id="node-40457" class="node node-type-article clear-block" style="margin: 1em 0px 2em;"><div class="meta" style="padding-bottom: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; background-image: url(http://insideclimatenews.org/sites/all/themes/solve/images/dot-bottom.png); background-position: 0% 100%; background-repeat: repeat-x;"><h3 style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Obama administration strategy would funnel $520 million into community or shared solar farms, where renters can buy shares or memberships into projects.</font></h3></div></div></div></div></div><p>

 http://ecowatch.com/2015/03/25/france-roofs-solar-panels-plants/</p><p></p><p><a href="http://ecowatch.com/2015/06/11/stanford-renewable-energy-plan/" class="external text" title="http://ecowatch.com/2015/06/11/stanford-renewable-energy-plan/" rel="nofollow" style="margin: 0px; color: rgb(253, 154, 38); text-decoration: none; padding-right: 13px; font-family: Georgia, 'Lucida Grande', Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.9200000762939px; line-height: 16.7039985656738px; background: url(http://www.ic.ucsc.edu/college8core/c8wiki/skins/monobook/external.png) 100% 50% no-repeat rgb(255, 255, 255);">Ditching Fossil Fuels and Switching to 100% Renewables No Problem, Says Stanford Study</a><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Georgia, 'Lucida Grande', Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.9200000762939px; line-height: 16.7039985656738px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> and </span><a href="http://ecowatch.com/2015/06/11/hawaii-renewable-energy-standard" class="external text" title="http://ecowatch.com/2015/06/11/hawaii-renewable-energy-standard" rel="nofollow" style="margin: 0px; color: rgb(253, 154, 38); text-decoration: none; padding-right: 13px; font-family: Georgia, 'Lucida Grande', Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.9200000762939px; line-height: 16.7039985656738px; background: url(http://www.ic.ucsc.edu/college8core/c8wiki/skins/monobook/external.png) 100% 50% no-repeat rgb(255, 255, 255);">Hawaii goes for 100%</a><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Georgia, 'Lucida Grande', Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.9200000762939px; line-height: 16.7039985656738px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">. See </span><a href="http://www.ic.ucsc.edu/college8core/c8wiki/index.php/Category:Solar#News_Stories" class="external text" title="http://www.ic.ucsc.edu/college8core/c8wiki/index.php/Category:Solar#News Stories" rel="nofollow" style="margin: 0px; color: rgb(253, 154, 38); text-decoration: none; padding-right: 13px; font-family: Georgia, 'Lucida Grande', Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.9200000762939px; line-height: 16.7039985656738px; background: url(http://www.ic.ucsc.edu/college8core/c8wiki/skins/monobook/external.png) 100% 50% no-repeat rgb(255, 255, 255);">Solar</a><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Georgia, 'Lucida Grande', Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.9200000762939px; line-height: 16.7039985656738px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">. 6/15.</span></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0.4em 0px; border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.6em; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b> pro-solar conservative group in Florida cleared a major hurdle this week in its journey to make solar more accessible in the state.</b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0.4em 0px; border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.6em; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Floridians for Solar Choice reached 72,000 signatures on a <a href="http://election.dos.state.fl.us/initiatives/fulltext/pdf/64491-1.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">petition</a> that seeks to allow Floridians to purchase solar power directly from other consumers — something that isn’t currently allowed in the state. That number of signatures clears the way for the petition to be reviewed by the state’s Supreme Court, which will decide whether or not the petition’s language legally qualifies it to be a ballot initiative for Floridians in 2016. Getting its petition on the 2016 ballot is the main goal for Floridians for Solar Choice.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0.4em 0px; border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.6em; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">“We are thrilled to reach this important milestone,” Tory Perfetti, founder of Floridians for Solar Choice, said in a statement. “It shows broad support among Florida’ families and businesses for removing barriers to commerce in solar power.”</font></p><div id="in-content-ad" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 22.4400005340576px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0.4em 0px; border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.6em; vertical-align: baseline;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The petition for the initiative seeks to “encourage and promote local small-scale solar-generated electricity production and to enhance the availability of solar power to customers.”</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> Under Florida’s current law, only utilities can sell electricity directly to consumers. Florida is <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/09/florida-solar-conservatives_n_6834792.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">one of only five states</a> in the country with a law like that</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">, and solar advocates say that it’s holding the Sunshine State back from its solar potential. If the ballot initiative is successful in 2016, businesses and property owners in the state would be able to produce up to 2 megawatts of solar power and sell it directly to consumers.</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0.4em 0px; border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.6em; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">If the state Supreme Court does approve the petition’s language for a ballot initiative, Floridians for Solar Choice will still have some work to do. In order to get on the ballot in Florida, an initiative <a href="http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/energy/supreme-court-review-of-solar-petition-held-up-by-state-election-board/2222627" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">must collect 683,149 signatures</a> from Floridians in at least seven congressional districts by February 1. Any delays in the Supreme Court’s approval of the petition means there’s less time for Floridians for Solar Choice to collect signatures. Already, supporters have expressed frustration that the state took too long to acknowledge that they had received enough signatures for Supreme Court review.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0.4em 0px; border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.6em; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Perfetti’s group began <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/01/08/3609455/florida-conservatives-push-for-solar/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">circulating</a> the petition in January, and he said at the time that he received “overwhelming” response to it. Perfetti and Debbie Dooley, a tea party activist who founded the original chapter of Conservatives for Energy Freedom in Georgia, say that they’re tackling solar in Florida because increasing access to the energy source makes sense from a conservative standpoint.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0.4em 0px; border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.6em; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">“Free market and the freedom to choose — those are core conservative principles,” Dooley <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/01/08/3609455/florida-conservatives-push-for-solar/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">told ThinkProgress in January</a>. “Unless you cherry-pick your principles, if you’re a true conservative, this is something that resonates with you. I think the residents are fed up with the government telling them who to purchase their power from.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0.4em 0px; border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.6em; vertical-align: baseline;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Floridians from Solar Choice has gained multiple backers of the ballot initiative. The Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) </span><a href="http://www.altenergymag.com/news/2015/03/25/seia-announces-support-for-florida-solar-ballot-initiative-/36642" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">voiced its support</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> of the initiative earlier this week, and it’s also </span><a href="http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/energy/supreme-court-review-of-solar-petition-held-up-by-state-election-board/2222627" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">gained</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> the </span><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/09/florida-solar-conservatives_n_6834792.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">support</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> of the</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font color="#ff0000"> Tea Party Network, the Christian Coalition,</font> the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, the Florida Retail Federation, the<font color="#ff6666">Sierra Club,</font> and other groups.</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0.4em 0px; border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.6em; vertical-align: baseline;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“This fight is about consumer choice and private property rights </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">— cherished, long-standing American principals that we strongly support as an organization and an industry,” Rhone Resch, president and CEO of SEIA, said in a </span><a href="http://www.altenergymag.com/news/2015/03/25/seia-announces-support-for-florida-solar-ballot-initiative-/36642" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">statement</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">. “We urge Floridians to sign this critically important, freedom-of-choice petition, allowing it to be placed on next year’s ballot.”</span></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span id="trigger-slidedown" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 22.4400005340576px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="line-height: 22.4400005340576px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /></span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0.4em 0px; border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.6em; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Conservative group <b><font color="#ff0000">Americans for Prosperity has attacked the initiative,</font></b> however, <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/09/florida-solar-conservatives_n_6834792.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">saying</a>that it’s “about money, and using government and taxpayers to prop up the solar industry.” Supporters reject that claim, saying the measure isn’t calling for solar subsidies or mandates; instead, it simply wants to make it easier for Floridians to gain access to solar.</font></p><p>==</p><h1 id="pf-title" style="font-size: 23.1000003814697px; margin: 1em 0px; clear: both; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; direction: ltr; page-break-inside: avoid !important; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Solar Industry Prepares for Battle Against Koch Brothers’ Front Groups</h1><span id="pf_author" style="font-size: 0.85em; display: block; margin: -1em 0px 1em; float: left; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Ken Johnson, Solar Energy Industries Association</span><div id="pf-content" style="clear: both; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19.0400009155273px; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; direction: ltr; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="pf-content"><p>Mark Twain said it best, there are “lies, damned lie<font color="#080000">s and statistics.” It’s hard to tell which is which after closely reviewing the latest hatchet job on solar energy by the</font><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="color: rgb(8, 0, 0);"> </span><a href="http://ecowatch.com/2014/05/20/dark-money-koch-brothers/" style="color: rgb(2, 106, 217); word-wrap: break-word; text-decoration: none;"><span class="text-node">Koch brothers’</span></a><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="color: rgb(8, 0, 0);"> </span><font color="#080000">front group, The Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA).  </font><span style="line-height: 19.0400009155273px; widows: auto; color: rgb(8, 0, 0);">Aside from spelling solar correctly, much of the</span><span style="color: rgb(131, 131, 131); font-size: 9.80000019073486px; line-height: 19.0400009155273px; widows: auto; background-color: rgb(249, 249, 249);"> </span><a href="http://protectingtaxpayers.org/assets/files/solar-report-february-12.pdf" target="blank" style="line-height: 19.0400009155273px; widows: auto; color: rgb(2, 106, 217); word-wrap: break-word; text-decoration: none;"><span class="text-node">report</span></a><span style="line-height: 19.0400009155273px; widows: auto; color: rgb(8, 0, 0);">,</span><span style="color: rgb(131, 131, 131); font-size: 9.80000019073486px; line-height: 19.0400009155273px; widows: auto; background-color: rgb(249, 249, 249);"> </span><em style="line-height: 19.0400009155273px; widows: auto; color: rgb(8, 0, 0);"><span class="text-node">Filling the Solar Sinkhole</span></em><span style="line-height: 19.0400009155273px; widows: auto; color: rgb(8, 0, 0);">, is untrue or misleading—including its basic assertion that the U.S. solar industry receives $39 billion in annual subsidies. Seriously? How can that be? How can an industry with a U.S. market value of $15 billion receive $39 billion in annual subsidies? The answer: it doesn’t. This is fuzzy math, and dirty tricks, at their very worst. But that shouldn’t come as a surprise. The purpose of this report isn’t to inform or educate. The purpose is to incite activists and generate scandalous headlines, when, in fact, no scandal exists.</span></p><p style="color: rgb(8, 0, 0);">According to PV-Tech’s John Parnell, who did a thoughtful analysis, “The report doesn’t make it clear how it arrived at the $39 billion figure. Of the 26 references cited in the report, 16 of them are from organizations that were either founded by the Koch brothers, or have received funding from them.”</p><p style="color: rgb(8, 0, 0);">Enough is enough. If<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://ecowatch.com/business/renewables/" style="color: rgb(2, 106, 217); word-wrap: break-word; text-decoration: none;"><span class="text-node">clean energy</span></a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>critics want a bare knuckle brawl, then they’re going to get one. This type of guerrilla warfare simply isn’t going to work. Americans overwhelmingly support clean, renewable solar energy—and that scares the hell out of the Koch brothers and their lackeys. Here’s the dirty little truth: few industries benefit more from the U.S. tax code than carbon-rich big oil. By their own estimates, oil and gas tax breaks amount to a staggering $100 billion over 10 years. So how do the Koch brothers divert attention away from this? They prod conservative groups, many of which they fund directly or indirectly, to attack clean energy. If it served their purposes, they would portray Snow White as an adulteress, a deadbeat and a crack queen.</p><p style="color: rgb(8, 0, 0);"><a href="http://www.americasupportssolar.org/" target="blank" style="color: rgb(2, 106, 217); word-wrap: break-word; text-decoration: none;"><span class="text-node">Solar energy is an American success story</span></a>—not a fairy tale. Since first being enacted in 2006 under a Republican administration, the solar Investment Tax Credit (ITC) has been a tremendous boon to both the U.S. economy and our environment, changing America for the better and helping to secure our nation’s energy future. Today, the<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://ecowatch.com/2015/01/15/solar-industry-jobs/" style="color: rgb(2, 106, 217); word-wrap: break-word; text-decoration: none;"><span class="text-node">solar industry employs nearly 175,000</span></a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>U.S. workers, pumps $15 billion a year into our economy and offsets more than 20 million metric tons of damaging carbon emissions into the air, which is the equivalent of removing 4 million cars off U.S. highways and roads.  In the past four years, employment in the solar industry has increased by more than 85 percent—and last year alone, we created one out of every 78 new jobs in America.</p><p style="color: rgb(8, 0, 0);">But the news keeps getting better. We now have an estimated 20 gigawatts (GW) of installed solar energy capacity nationwide, which is enough to power more than 4 million U.S. homes—or every single home in a state the size of Massachusetts or New Jersey—with another 20 GW in the pipeline for 2015-16. This remarkable progress is due, in large part, to smart, effective public policies like the ITC.</p><p style="color: rgb(8, 0, 0);">If the Koch brothers and their minions want to have a discussion about the solar ITC, then let’s have one at the same time about intangible drilling costs and the oil depletion allowance. And while we’re at it, let’s take a few questions on refinery explosions, oil spills and deadly train derailments. Yep. We’ll have that debate with them any day of the week.</p><p style="color: rgb(8, 0, 0);"><em><span class="text-node">Ken Johnson serves as vice president and head of communications for the<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span><a href="http://www.seia.org/" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(2, 106, 217); word-wrap: break-word; text-decoration: none;"><span class="text-node">Solar Energy Industries Association</span></a><span class="text-node">.</span></em></p></div></div>

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http://ecowatch.com/2015/02/13/solar-jobs-arizona-despite-big-utilities/

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And the Arizona Solar Jobs Census released by The Solar Foundation yesterday shows that solar is providing jobs by the thousands in the state, with a total of nearly 9,20o including 600 created in the last year. That puts it third in the nation, behind California—by far the national leader with 54,700 jobs—and Massachusetts, with 9,400 jobs. Arizona solar employers believe the number could climb to more than 11,000 by the end of 2015.</p>

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“In 2013, APS led the assault to weaken Arizona’s net metering policies by proposing a new $50-$100 surcharge on rooftop solar installations in the state,” said the Sierra Club. “The proposed solar fee was opposed by a diverse coalition of organizations including conservative organizations, clean energy businesses, environmental advocates and many other groups.”</p>

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In addition, the state’s second largest utility company, the Salt River Project, is currently proposing a package of rate changes that could increase the utility bills of solar customers by about $50 per month. APS has also been advocating for a property tax on leased solar panels, which comprise about 85 percent of the state’s new solar installation and can make solar panels more affordable for the average homeowner.</p>

<p>

“With the growth of leasing programs that allow building owners to acquire rooftop solar at little to no upfront cost and without ownership responsibilities, rooftop solar is booming and utilities’ lost revenues are becoming noticeable,” wrote GreenTechMedia.</p>

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The Solar Foundation’s report points to legislative and regulatory uncertainty as one of the things that could impede the growth of solar....

...<span style=" color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 25.2000007629395px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">These forward-looking companies are helping to create thousands of American jobs, boost the U.S. economy and improve our environment. The 1,110 commercial solar systems currently in operation are generating enough clean electricity to prevent 549,296 metric tons of damaging carbon emissions from being released into our air. That’s the equivalent of saving nearly 62 million gallons of gasoline.</span>

The comprehensive new report, which identifies major commercial solar projects and ranks top corporate solar users, shows Walmart at the top of the list for the third year in a row with 105 megawatts (MW) installed at 254 locations.

Rounding out the top 25 companies utilizing solar are <a href="http://ecowatch.com/2013/10/08/corporations-cities-renewable-energy/" style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(67, 146, 65); transition: color 0.2s linear; -webkit-transition: color 0.2s linear; background: transparent;">Kohl’s</a>, Costco, <a href="http://ecowatch.com/2013/03/24/apple-100-renewable-energy/" style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(67, 146, 65); transition: color 0.2s linear; -webkit-transition: color 0.2s linear; background: transparent;">Apple</a>, <a href="http://ecowatch.com/2014/04/11/ikea-buys-first-wind-farm-its-largest-ever-renewable-energy-investment/" style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(67, 146, 65); transition: color 0.2s linear; -webkit-transition: color 0.2s linear; background: transparent;">IKEA</a>, Macy’s, Johnson & Johnson, Target, McGraw Hill, Staples, Campbell’s Soup, U.S. Foods, Bed Bath & Beyond, Kaiser Permanente, Volkswagen, Walgreens, Safeway, FedEx, Intel, L’Oreal, General Motors, Toys “R” Us, Verizon, White Rose Foods, Toyota and AT&T.

==</p>

<p>

<a href="http://ecowatch.com/2014/09/03/pay-to-play-politics-solar-boom/">http://ecowatch.com/2014/09/03/pay-to-play-politics-solar-boom/</a></p>

<p>

It is obvious that the U.S. federal government is struggling to perform basic governance functions and, <a href="http://ecowatch.com/2014/08/05/fed-government-incapable-transition-to-renewable-economy/" style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(67, 146, 65); transition: color 0.2s linear; -webkit-transition: color 0.2s linear; background: transparent;">as I wrote earlier this summer</a>, it is incapable of leading the transition to a<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://ecowatch.com/business/renewables/" style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(67, 146, 65); transition: color 0.2s linear; -webkit-transition: color 0.2s linear; background: transparent;">renewable economy</a>. Nevertheless, one of the key elements of that transition, the adoption of solar power, is well underway in the U.S. According to a new report by John Rogers and Laura Wisland, published by the <a href="http://www.ucsusa.org/assets/documents/clean_energy/Solar-Power-on-the-Rise.pdf" onclick="javascript:gaq.push(['trackEvent','download','http://www.ucsusa.org/assets/documents/clean_energy/Solar-Power-on-the-Rise.pdf']);" target="_blank" style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(67, 146, 65); transition: color 0.2s linear; -webkit-transition: color 0.2s linear; background: transparent;">Union of Concerned Scientists</a>:

<span style=" background-color: #FFF200;">Solar is undergoing widespread and rapid growth in the U.S. … The amount of solar PV installed in the U.S. grew by 485 percent from 2010 to 2013 … Solar accounted for an average of 16 percent of electricity capacity installed annually in the United States from 2011 to 2013, and almost 30 percent in 2013.</span>

<span style=" background-color: #FFF200;">They note that the</span><span class="Apple-converted-space"><span style=" background-color: #FFF200;"> </span></span><a href="http://ecowatch.com/2014/02/04/solar-revolution/" style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(67, 146, 65); transition: color 0.2s linear; -webkit-transition: color 0.2s linear; background: transparent;"><span style=" background-color: #FFF200;">price of solar systems has dropped</span></a><span class="Apple-converted-space"><span style=" background-color: #FFF200;"> </span></span><span style=" background-color: #FFF200;">by more than 50 percent since 2007</span>, and that as local government permitting processes become streamlined and as financing options grow, household solar installations are becoming more feasible.....

germany as model <a href="http://ecowatch.us7.list-manage.com/track/click?u=214ab5fbb3f6015d74ffab4ec&id=8e06397080&e=c2e8fdabfa"> http://ecowatch.us7.list-manage.com/track/click?u=214ab5fbb3f6015d74ffab4ec&id=8e06397080&e=c2e8fdabfa</a>  solar

<span style=" color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 19.200000762939453px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">NV Energy has announced that it will close three of its four coal-fired units at the Reid Gardner power plant in southern Nevada by the end of this year, and the fourth by 2019. The Sierra Club has worked for years with the Moapa Band of Paiutes to retire heavily polluting Reid Gardner, which sits next door to the Moapa Paiute reservation. Soon the tribe will build a 200-megawatt solar array -- the first commercial solar project on Native American lands -- from which the city of Los Angeles will be purchasing enough energy to power over 110,000 homes. </span><br style=" line-height: 19.200000762939453px; outline: none; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" />

<a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://action.sierraclub.org/site/R?i=gYyA3q_lhrlUjToXnWd6oA" style=" color: rgb(103, 133, 178); line-height: 19.200000762939453px; outline: none; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Read about this major victory for the climate, clean air, and renewable energy.</a><span style=" color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 19.200000762939453px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </span>

Bad news for the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/American_Legislative_Exchange_Council" style=" border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(157, 157, 157); text-decoration: none; max-width: 100%;">polluter-funded</a> American Legislative Exchange Council, but wonderful news for the planet.

In 2012 and 2013, ALEC tried to roll back states' renewable energy standards, and <a href="http://grist.org/news/campaign-to-roll-back-state-renewable-programs-is-a-flop-so-far/" style=" border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(157, 157, 157); text-decoration: none; max-width: 100%;">failed</a>. Now it's trying to <a href="http://grist.org/news/times-are-tough-for-the-fossil-fuel-lovers-at-alec/" style=" border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(157, 157, 157); text-decoration: none; max-width: 100%;">roll back solar net-metering programs</a>, which let homeowners sell electricity from their rooftop panels into the grid, and that campaign isn't going so well either.

Case in point: In Vermont, Gov. Peter Shumlin (D) just signed a bill that will expand the state's net-metering program, allowing solar panel owners to sell more of their clean electricity into the grid.

<a href="http://www.leg.state.vt.us/docs/2014/bills/Passed/H-702C.pdf" target="blank" style=" border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(157, 157, 157); text-decoration: none; max-width: 100%;">The bill</a> will nearly quadruple the size of a cap on the amount of solar power that utilities must be willing to buy from their customers. It also creates pilot projects that could allow for solar projects as large as 5 megawatts to be built under the scheme. <a href="http://www.therepublic.com/w/VT--Renewable-Power" target="blank" style=" border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(157, 157, 157); text-decoration: none; max-width: 100%;">The AP reports</a>:</p>

<p style=" border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1.4em; padding: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 100%;">Alternative energy proponents pushed for the increased cap after some Vermont utilities had reached the 4 percent cap and stopped taking new net-metered power.

"Our success exceeded our wildest dreams," Shumlin said before signing the bill into law, noting that since he took office in 2011 the state had quadrupled the amount of solar energy on the state's electric grid.

Vermont's increased use of alternative energy has helped the state to become the nation's per-capita leader in the number of solar energy jobs.</p>

</blockquote>

<div><b><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/27/opinion/sunday/the-koch-attack-on-solar-energy.html?r=1">http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/27/opinion/sunday/the-koch-attack-on-solar-energy.html?r=1</a></b></div>

</b></div>

<div>

<div><b>At long last, the Koch brothers and their conservative allies in state government have found a new tax they can support. Naturally it’s a tax on something the country needs: solar energy panels.</b></div>

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<div>For the last few months, the Kochs and other big polluters have been spending heavily to fight incentives for renewable energy, which have been adopted by most states. They particularly dislike state laws that allow homeowners with solar panels to sell power they don’t need back to electric utilities. So they’ve been pushing legislatures to impose a surtax on this increasingly popular practice, hoping to make installing solar panels on houses less attractive.</div>

<div>

</div>

<div><span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Oklahoma lawmakers recently approved such a surcharge at the behest of the American Legislative Exchange Council,</span> the conservative group that often dictates bills to Republican statehouses and receives financing from the utility industry and fossil-fuel producers, including the Kochs. As The Los Angeles Times reported recently, the Kochs and ALEC have made similar efforts in other states, though they were beaten back by solar advocates in Kansas and the surtax was reduced to $5 a month in Arizona.</div>

<div>

</div>

<div>But the Big Carbon advocates aren’t giving up. The same group is <span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">trying to repeal or freeze Ohio’s requirement</span> that 12.5 percent of the state’s electric power come from renewable sources like solar and wind by 2025. <span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Twenty-nine states have established similar standards that call for 10 percent or more in renewable power</span>. These states can now anticipate well-financed campaigns to eliminate these targets or scale them back.</div>

<div>

</div>

<div>The coal producers’ motivation is clear: They see solar and wind energy as a long-term threat to their businesses. That might seem distant at the moment, when nearly 40 percent of the nation’s electricity is still generated by coal, and when less than 1 percent of power customers have solar arrays. (It is slightly higher in California and Hawaii.) But given new regulations on power-plant emissions of mercury and other pollutants, and the urgent need to reduce global warming emissions, the future clearly lies with renewable energy. In 2013, 29 percent of newly installed generation capacity came from solar, compared with 10 percent in 2012.</div>

<div>

</div>

<div>Renewables are good for economic as well as environmental reasons, as most states know. (More than 143,000 now work in the solar industry.) Currently, 43 states require utilities to buy excess power generated by consumers with solar arrays. This practice, known as net metering, essentially runs electric meters backward when power flows from rooftop solar panels into the grid, giving consumers a credit for the power they generate but don’t use.</div>

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<div>...<span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.4375rem;">Oklahoma lawmakers recently </span><a href="http://newsok.com/oklahoma-house-passes-solar-surcharge-bill/article/3955378" style=" font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.4375rem; color: rgb(50, 104, 145);">approved such a surcharge</a><span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.4375rem;">at </span><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/04/alec-freerider-homeowners-assault-clean-energy" style=" font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.4375rem; color: rgb(50, 104, 145);">the behest of the American Legislative Exchange Council</a><span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.4375rem;">, the conservative group that often dictates bills to Republican statehouses and receives financing from the utility industry and fossil-fuel producers, including the Kochs. As </span><a href="http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-solar-kochs-20140420,0,2718030,full.story" style=" font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.4375rem; color: rgb(50, 104, 145);">The Los Angeles Times reported recently</a><span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.4375rem;">, the Kochs and ALEC have made similar efforts in other states, though they were beaten back by solar advocates in Kansas and the surtax was reduced to $5 a month in Arizona.</span></div>

<p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="432" data-total-count="1599" itemprop="articleBody" style=" margin: 0px 0px 1em 135px; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.4375rem; font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; width: 540px; max-width: 540px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">But the Big Carbon advocates aren’t giving up. The same group is trying to repeal or freeze <a href="http://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/news/2014/03/27/bill-to-be-introduced-friday-to-freeze-ohio-s.html?page=all" style=" color: rgb(50, 104, 145);">Ohio’s requirement</a> that 12.5 percent of the state’s electric power come from renewable sources like solar and wind by 2025. <a href="http://www.dsireusa.org/documents/summarymaps/RPS_map.pdf" style=" color: rgb(50, 104, 145);">Twenty-nine states</a> have established similar standards that call for 10 percent or more in renewable power. These states can now anticipate well-financed campaigns to eliminate these targets or scale them back.

The coal producers’ motivation is clear: They see solar and wind energy as a long-term threat to their businesses. That might seem distant at the moment, when nearly 40 percent of the nation’s electricity is still generated by coal, and when less than 1 percent of power customers have solar arrays. (It is slightly higher in California and Hawaii.) But given new regulations on power-plant emissions of mercury and other pollutants, and the urgent need to reduce global warming emissions, the future clearly lies with renewable energy. In 2013, <a href="http://www.seia.org/research-resources/us-solar-market-insight" style=" color: rgb(50, 104, 145);">29 percent</a> of newly installed generation capacity came from solar, compared with 10 percent in 2012.

Renewables are good for economic as well as environmental reasons, as most states know. (<a href="http://www.thesolarfoundation.org/research/national-solar-jobs-census-2013" style=" color: rgb(50, 104, 145);">More than 143,000 </a>now work in the solar industry.) Currently, <a href="http://www.dsireusa.org/documents/summarymaps/net_metering_map.pdf" style=" color: rgb(50, 104, 145);">43 states</a> require utilities to buy excess power generated by consumers with solar arrays. This practice, known as net metering, essentially runs electric meters backward when power flows from rooftop solar panels into the grid, giving consumers a credit for the power they generate but don’t use.</p>

<div>

<p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="324" data-total-count="3023" itemprop="articleBody" id="story-continues-2" style=" margin: 0px 0px 1em 135px; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.4375rem; font-weight: normal; font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; width: 540px; max-width: 540px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>The utilities hate this requirement, for obvious reasons. A <a href="http://www.eei.org/ourissues/finance/documents/disruptivechallenges.pdf" style=" color: rgb(50, 104, 145);">report by the Edison Electric Institute</a>, the lobbying arm of the power industry, says this kind of law will put “a squeeze on profitability,” and warns that if state incentives are not rolled back, “it may be too late to repair the utility business model.”</b>

Since that’s an unsympathetic argument, the utilities have devised another: Solar expansion, they claim, will actually hurt consumers. The Arizona Public Service Company, the state’s largest utility, <a href="http://www.azcentral.com/business/news/articles/20131007aps-solar-clash-credits-customers.html?nclick_check=1" style=" color: rgb(50, 104, 145);">funneled large sums</a> through a Koch operative to a nonprofit group <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBL2fOZNLzg" style=" color: rgb(50, 104, 145);">that ran an ad</a> claiming net metering would hurt older people on fixed incomes by raising electric rates. The ad tried to link the requirement to President Obama. <a href="http://americansforprosperity.org/kansas/contact/stop-green-energy-mandates-in-kansas/" style=" color: rgb(50, 104, 145);">Another Koch ad</a> likens the renewable-energy requirement to health care reform, the ultimate insult in that world. “Like Obamacare, it’s another government mandate we can’t afford,” the narrator says.

That line might appeal to Tea Partiers, but it’s deliberately misleading. This campaign is really about the profits of Koch Carbon and the utilities, which to its organizers is much more important than clean air and the consequences of climate change.</p>

</div>

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<div>comments?</div>

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<div>tom durkin 22 days ago</div>

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<div>The Kochs own so many politicians, and such large astroturf and fake "committees", that we should tax ownership of politicians & such...</div>

<div>Deborah 26 days ago</div>

<div>The best refute to these mendacious propaganda is to get one solar topped house in each Red state neighborhood. The word on benefits will...</div>

<div>The Koch brothers - real patriots those conservatives propping up America's foreign dependency. Let's not forget the arguments pro and con...</div>

<div>

</div>

<div>The utilities hate this requirement, for obvious reasons. A report by the Edison Electric Institute, the lobbying arm of the power industry, says this kind of law will put “a squeeze on profitability,” and warns that if state incentives are not rolled back, “it may be too late to repair the utility business model.”</div>

<div>

</div>

<div>Since that’s an unsympathetic argument, the utilities have devised another: Solar expansion, they claim, will actually hurt consumers. <span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The Arizona Public Service Company, the state’s largest utility, funneled large sums through a Koch operative to a nonprofit group that ran an ad claiming net metering would hurt older people on fixed incomes by raising electric rates</span>. The ad tried to link the requirement to President Obama. Another Koch ad likens the renewable-energy requirement to health care reform, the ultimate insult in that world. “Like Obamacare, it’s another government mandate we can’t afford,” the narrator says.</div>

<div>

</div>

<div>That line might appeal to Tea Partiers, but it’s deliberately misleading. This campaign is really about the profits of Koch Carbon and the utilities, which to its organizers is much more important than clean air and the consequences of climate change.</div>

</div>

<div class="byline environment"><span class="field field-name-field-sources field-type-node-reference field-label-hidden">OurFuture.org</span> / <em>By</em> <em><a href="http://www.alternet.org/authors/isaiah-j-poole-0" style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Isaiah J. Poole</a> <span class="print-footnote" style=" font-size: xx-small;">[1]</span></em></div>

<h1 property="dc:title" datatype="" class="node-title"><font size="4">Now the Kochs Are Coming After Your Solar Panels</font></h1>

</div>

<div class="story-date"><em><span class="field field-name-field-date field-type-date field-label-hidden"><span class="field-items"><span class="field-item even"><span class="date-display-single" property="dc:date" datatype="xsd:dateTime" content="2013-12-18T11:24:00-08:00">December 18, 2013</span></span></span></span> </em> |  </div>

<p>Now the Koch brothers are coming after my solar panels.

I had solar panels installed on the roof of our Washington, D.C. home this year. My household took advantage of a generous tax incentive from the District government and a creative leasing deal offered by the solar panel seller.

Our electric bills fell by at least a third. When people make this choice, the regional electric company grows less pressured to spend money to expand generating capacity and the installation business creates good local jobs. Customers who use solar energy also reduce carbon emissions.

What’s not to love?

According to the <a href="http://www.alecexposed.org/wiki/ALEC_Exposed" style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">American Legislative Exchange Council</a> <span class="print-footnote" style=" font-size: xx-small;">[2]</span>, a conservative network better known as ALEC, our solar panels make us “free riders.” What?

Yes, according to ALEC, an organization that specializes in getting the right-wing agenda written into state laws, people like me who invest in energy-efficiency and shrinking our carbon footprints ought to be penalized.

Why does ALEC want us punished? Since it’s bankrolled by, among others, the billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch, it’s hard not to surmise that they’re worried about a threat to fossil fuels businesses. Koch Industries’ operations include <a href="http://www.fhr.com/refining/default.aspx" target="blank" style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">refineries</a> <span class="print-footnote" style=" font-size: xx-small;">[3]</span>, <a href="http://kochpipeline.com/" target="blank" style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">oil and natural gas pipelines</a> <span class="print-footnote" style=" font-size: xx-small;">[4]</span>, and petrochemicals

That’s no conspiracy theory. Recently the British newspaper The Guardian wrote about <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/04/alec-freerider-homeowners-assault-clean-energy" style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">the assault on solar panels</a> <span class="print-footnote" style=" font-size: xx-small;">[5]</span> as part of a broader exposé on ALEC.

John Eick, the legislative analyst for ALEC’s energy, environment and agriculture program, confirmed to The Guardian that the organization would support making solar panel users pay extra for the electricity they generate. <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/15/arizona-solar-energy-fight-ends_n_4282220.html" style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">That’s already about to happen in Arizona</a> <span class="print-footnote" style=" font-size: xx-small;">[6]</span>, where homeowners who use solar panels will pay an average of about $5 extra a month for the privilege, starting in January.

The solar power industry called the new rule a victory only because power companies in the state were demanding assessments of as much as $100 a month — more than high enough to deter families from considering switching to solar.

Making solar energy cost-prohibitive for homeowners and businesses is part of a larger ALEC objective, affirmed at its recent annual meeting, to continue its effort to eliminate state renewable energy mandates.

According to <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/842268-alec-2013-annual-meeting-policy-report.html" style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">meeting minutes</a> <span class="print-footnote" style=" font-size: xx-small;">[7]</span>, ALEC has already succeeded in getting legislation introduced in 15 states to “reform, freeze, or repeal their state’s renewable mandate.” ALEC lobbyists are pushing policies through states that will speed up climate change and increase pollution. They’re threatening the renewable energy industry, which is already creating new jobs and saving money for homeowners and businesses.

Without the current policy paralysis in Washington and a lack of bold, creative thinking about how to build a new, green economy at the national level, they wouldn’t be making so much headway.

My organization, Institute for America’s Future — together with the Center for American Progress and the BlueGreen Alliance — recently <a href="http://ourfuture.org/report/green-industrial-revolution-and-united-states" style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">published a report</a> <span class="print-footnote" style=" font-size: xx-small;">[8]</span> that shows what’s at stake with ALEC’s destructive agenda.

Our “green industrial revolution” report recommends tying together a series of regional solutions that take advantage of the unique assets of each part of the country, such as the abundance of sun in the West and the wind off the Atlantic coast, into a cohesive whole.

These regional strategies would be supported by smart federal policies, such as establishing a price for carbon emissions and a national clean energy standard, creating certainty and stability in the alternative energy tax credit market, and providing strong support for advanced energy manufacturing.

This is the way to unleash the kind of innovation and job creation our economy — and our rapidly warming planet — desperately needs.

My solar panels are the envy of my block and I wish more of my neighbors will be able to make the same choice I did. But they won’t if fossil-fuel dinosaurs like the Koch brothers and right-wing organizations like the American Legislative Exchange Council keep casting their dark clouds on efforts to build a clean energy future.

It’s time for them to step aside and let the sun shine in.</p>

</div>

<div class="tags"><em>See more stories tagged with:</em>

<div class="field-item even"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/solar-cells-0" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">solar cells</a> <span class="print-footnote" style=" font-size: xx-small;">[9]</span></div>

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<div class="print-source_url" style=" font-size: small;"><strong>Source URL:</strong> <a href="http://www.alternet.org/environment/now-kochs-are-coming-after-your-solar-panels" style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">http://www.alternet.org/environment/now-kochs-are-coming-after-your-solar-panels</a></div>

<p><strong>Links:</strong>

[1] http://www.alternet.org/authors/isaiah-j-poole-0

[2] http://www.alecexposed.org/wiki/ALEC_Exposed

[3] http://www.fhr.com/refining/default.aspx

[4] http://kochpipeline.com/

[5] http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/04/alec-freerider-homeowners-assault-clean-energy

[6] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/15/arizona-solar-energy-fight-ends_n_4282220.html

[7] https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/842268-alec-2013-annual-meeting-policy-report.html

[8] http://ourfuture.org/report/green-industrial-revolution-and-united-states

[9] http://www.alternet.org/tags/solar-cells-0

[10] http://www.alternet.org/%2Bnew_src%2B</p>

</div>

<p>===

Utility commissioners in Arizona will decide the fate of rooftop solar incentives this week, in what has become the biggest fight over renewable energy policy in the country. A two-day hearing on the issue at the Arizona Corporation Commission<a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/11/13/solar-arizona-idUSL2N0IX1FS20131113" target="_hplink" style=" list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; color: rgb(57, 152, 0); outline: 0px; text-decoration: none;">began Wednesday</a>.

The Arizona Public Service, the state's largest utility, is asking the commission to change the current policy, which allows homes and businesses with their own solar power systems to sell any excess energy they generate back to the grid. That policy, known as net metering, was first put in place in 2009. The utility argues that customers with rooftop solar aren't paying their fair share to maintain the grid, and has proposed policy changes that would increase prices for those with solar systems. But local solar advocates have accused the utility of trying to kill the state's burgeoning solar industry, and have launched a counter-campaign.

As<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/25/solar-arizona-net-metering_n_4164731.html" target="hplink" style=" list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; color: rgb(57, 152, 0); outline: 0px; text-decoration: none;">The Huffington Post has previously reported</a>, the fight got interesting when the utility revealed that it had been secretly funding anti-solar ads produced by a national conservative group. After a commissioner<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/31/arizona-solar-net-metering_n_4181871.html" target="hplink" style=" list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; color: rgb(57, 152, 0); outline: 0px; text-decoration: none;">asked the company</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>and other groups involved in the net metering debate to disclose how much money they were spending on the issue, APS<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://big.assets.huffingtonpost.com/APSletter.pdf" target="_hplink" style=" list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; color: rgb(57, 152, 0); outline: 0px; text-decoration: none;">disclosed that it had spent $3.7 million</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>on PR work. The solar lobby disclosed that it was spending nearly half a million dollars on fighting the proposed changes.

Meanwhile, the Edison Electric Institute, a national group that represents utilities, has jumped in the fight, spending $520,000 on a 10-day television ad campaign in support of APS,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.azcentral.com/business/consumer/articles/20131106expense-solar-battle-millions.html" target="_hplink" style=" list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; color: rgb(57, 152, 0); outline: 0px; text-decoration: none;">the Arizona Republic reported</a>.

Hundreds of solar supporters<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.kpho.com/story/23962290/hundreds-of-solar-supporters-line-up-for-public-hearing" target="_hplink" style=" list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; color: rgb(57, 152, 0); outline: 0px; text-decoration: none;">came to rally outside the hearing</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>on Wednesday, and dozens testified. The commission is expected to decide Thursday whether to change the policy.

Forty-three states and the District of Columbia have some manner of net metering policy in place, which has helped<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://cleantechnica.com/2013/08/22/the-utility-vs-solar-fight-why-whats-at-stake/" target="hplink" style=" list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; color: rgb(57, 152, 0); outline: 0px; text-decoration: none;">spur the growth of solar across the country</a>. Both solar proponents and utilities elsewhere are watching Arizona as a test case for the issue, as a handful of other states have also<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.eenews.net/stories/1059986606" target="hplink" style=" list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; color: rgb(57, 152, 0); outline: 0px; text-decoration: none;">considered changes to similar policies this year</a>.

And as this fight has shown,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424127887324789504578381820753301976" target="_hplink" style=" list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; color: rgb(57, 152, 0); outline: 0px; text-decoration: none;">utilities are willing to put big bucks</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>behind efforts to change them.

==</p>

<p>

With partisan politics trumping science-based solutions all too often these days, it's especially heartening when people overcome political differences to let solid data point the way toward practical solutions. That's what happened in Georgia last month when state regulators voted to require Georgia Power -- the state's sole investor-owned electricity provider -- to expand the use of solar power in its energy mix.

Regulators on the all-Republican commission<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.psc.state.ga.us/GetNewsRecordAttachment.aspx?ID=250" target="hplink" style=" list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; color: rgb(57, 152, 0); outline: 0px; text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer;">voted 3-2</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>in favor of a plan that requires Atlanta-based Georgia Power Co. to increase its solar power capacity by 525 megawatts by the end of 2016. The decision comes on the heels of the announcement that Georgia Power, a subsidiary of Southern Co., is<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.ucsusa.org/news/press_release/ga-power-closures-0356.html" target="hplink" style=" list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; color: rgb(57, 152, 0); outline: 0px; text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer;">planning to retire</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>more than 2,000 megawatts worth of coal-fired generating capacity.

The vote in Georgia is notable not just for the commonsense outcome of adding more cost-effective renewable energy in a state<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.seia.org/state-solar-policy/georgia" target="_hplink" style=" list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; color: rgb(57, 152, 0); outline: 0px; text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer;">ranked fifth</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>in the nation for solar potential but just 21st for installed solar capacity. The real surprise here, after more than a year of often acrimonious debate, is the nearly unprecedented coalition that made the decision possible -- a mixture of not just environmentalists and solar advocates but also conservative lawmakers and Tea Party members.

<strong style=" list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px;">Koch-Sponsored Misinformation</strong><br style=" list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 4px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; display: block;" />

The latter groups in particular had to face down a barrage of misinformation from Americans for Prosperity (AFP), an organization founded and underwritten by the billionaire Koch brothers, whose predecessor organization, Citizens for a Sound Economy,<a href="http://www.ucsusa.org/publications/got-science/2013/got-science-march-2013.html" target="_hplink" style=" list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; color: rgb(57, 152, 0); outline: 0px; text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer;">virtually founded the Tea Party<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></a>itself. AFP's Georgia chapter mounted a scare campaign against solar power in Georgia that, as usual, supported the Koch's bottom line as fossil fuel magnates even as it played fast and loose with the facts.

Virginia Galloway, director of AFP's Georgia chapter, for instance,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://americansforprosperity.org/georgia/legislativealerts/bubbas-boondoggle-will-hurt-georgia-by-virginia-galloway/" target="hplink" style=" list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; color: rgb(57, 152, 0); outline: 0px; text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer;">warned<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></a>the group's 50,000 members that the solar proposal would "reduce the reliability of every appliance and electronics gadget in your home" and could increase Georgia electricity rates by up to 40 percent. As the Associated Press<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/08/americans-for-prosperity-koch-ga-solar_n_3560909.html" target="hplink" style=" list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; color: rgb(57, 152, 0); outline: 0px; text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer;">pointed out</a>, neither of these claims bore much resemblance to the truth. In fact, at the hearing before the vote, Kevin Greene, Georgia Power's attorney, said that the utility didn't believe the solar requirement would cause any increase in electricity prices for ratepayers.

All of which underscores the really surprising part: even the Tea Party faithful didn't seem to be buying the AFP line this time around. Despite the mass emails, handouts, and phone calls put out by AFP's Georgia chapter, when the group held a protest during the Public Service Commission deliberations, hardly anyone showed up.

What's more, a separate branch of the Tea Party in Georgia, known as the Tea Party Patriots, came out strongly in favor of more solar power in the state. Debbie Dooley, national coordinator of the Tea Party Patriots<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://video.msnbc.msn.com/all-in-/52446144" target="_hplink" style=" list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; color: rgb(57, 152, 0); outline: 0px; text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer;">told the press</a>: "AFP Georgia is putting out absolutely false data," that doesn't take into account the fact that "solar prices have plummeted" in recent years. Dooley quipped that her group was forming "a Green Tea Coalition" because it saw the proposed solar expansion as a free market issue that "gives consumers more choice."

<strong style=" list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px;">Solar Power is Growing for Good Reason</strong><br style=" list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 4px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; display: block;" />

Michael Jacobs, a senior energy analyst at the Union of Concerned Scientists, says the facts in the energy sector speak for themselves. As Georgia regulators wisely recognized, he says, the price of coal has risen, while prices for solar panels have dropped some 60 percent since 2011.

The fact is, solar has been one of the nation's<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.seia.org/research-resources/solar-industry-data" target="_hplink" style=" list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; color: rgb(57, 152, 0); outline: 0px; text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer;">fastest growing industries</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>for the past several years, now supporting more than 100,000 jobs at 5,600 companies operating in every state in the nation. With the rate of utility solar installations more than doubling since 2012, the United States is now on track to add another 4,400 megawatts of photovoltaic power in 2013.

All of which has been noted with considerable alarm by some electric utilities. A recent<a href="http://www.eei.org/ourissues/finance/Documents/disruptivechallenges.pdf" target="_hplink" style=" list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; color: rgb(57, 152, 0); outline: 0px; text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer;">report</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>distributed by the Edison Electric Institute, the industry's main trade group, for instance, calls the growth of small-scale solar systems the "largest near-term threat" to the industry and warns of a disruption to the industry similar to the one wrought by cell phones on the landline telephone industry.

<strong style=" list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px;">Next up: Arizona</strong><br style=" list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 4px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; display: block;" />

In a number of states recently, utilities have sought to fight back by charging extra fees to customers with rooftop solar panels. Moves to change so-called net metering arrangements were notably<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.utilitydive.com/news/net-metering-setbacks-for-utilities-in-idaho-and-louisiana/148738/" target="_hplink" style=" list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; color: rgb(57, 152, 0); outline: 0px; text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer;">beaten back</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>this spring in both Louisiana and Idaho -- hardly states known for liberal politics or environmental activism.

The<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://blog.ucsusa.org/arizona-dont-turn-out-the-lights-on-solar-power-184" target="hplink" style=" list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; color: rgb(57, 152, 0); outline: 0px; text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer;">latest battleground</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>is Arizona, where the state's largest electric utility -- Arizona Public Service Company -- has similarly asked regulators to raise electric rates for residential customers who install solar photovoltaic systems at their homes. And, as in Georgia, the battle lines are forging some surprising alliances. In this case, Barry Goldwater, Jr. the son of the late politician who served five terms in the U.S. Senate and whose name is practically synonymous with conservatism in America, is among those leading the fight for solar power in his state, heading a recently formed organization called<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://dontkillsolar.com/site/" target="hplink" style=" list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; color: rgb(57, 152, 0); outline: 0px; text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer;">TUSK</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>-- "Tell Utilities Solar Won't Be Killed."

Jacobs notes that the populist nature of rooftop solar power seems to be causing a paradigm shift in many people's political perspective. "Instead of being forced to buy power from a monopoly, people now have a real option to go buy rooftop solar panels as they would a television or a refrigerator. There's no question," he says, "that this aspect is particularly appealing to a segment of the population that prefers the free market and doesn't want utilities or government to mandate what they do."

While Koch-funded groups like AFP are unlikely to heed the message anytime soon, there is every indication in the solar energy field that the political terrain is starting to shift dramatically.

<em style=" list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: italic !important;">Seth Shulman, Senior Staff Writer at the Union of Concerned Scientists, is a veteran science journalist and author of six books whose work has appeared in</em><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>The Atlantic, Discover, Nature, Technology Review, Parade<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><em style=" list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: italic !important;">and many other publications. You can sign up to receive his monthly Got Science? column via email at the Union of Concerned Scientists website:<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.ucsusa.org/" target="_hplink" style=" list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; color: rgb(57, 152, 0); outline: 0px; text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer;">www.ucsusa.org</a>.</em>

==</p>

<h1 class="headline"><span style=" font-size: large;">Here comes the son: Barry Goldwater Jr. fights for solar power in Arizona</span></h1>

<p class="byline">By <a href="http://grist.org/author/kate-sheppard/" title="Posts by Kate Sheppard">Kate Sheppard</a></p>

<p>

The name Barry Goldwater is practically synonymous with conservatism in America. That’s even more true in the late politician’s home state of Arizona, which he represented for five terms in the U.S. Senate. Now his son, Barry Goldwater Jr., is putting the family name behind an effort to protect solar energy’s growing share of the electricity market — a struggle that has pitted him against entrenched utility interests and a right-wing dark-money group.

Goldwater, 74, is the chair of Tell Utilities Solar Won’t Be Killed (or TUSK, for short), a group launched in March to fight the state’s largest electric utility, Arizona Public Service, on solar power. APS has been campaigning to get the state utility commission to change regulations dealing with <a href="http://www.seia.org/policy/distributed-solar/net-metering">net metering</a>, a policy that allows homes and businesses with their own solar power systems to send excess energy they generate back to the grid and make money off of it. Forty-three states and the District of Columbia have a <a href="http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/APS-Responds-to-Sunruns-CEO-Ed-Fenster-on-Net-Metering">net-metering</a> policy in place.

Arizona has had net metering <a href="http://www.dsireusa.org/incentives/incentive.cfm?Incentive_Code=AZ24R">since 2009</a>, which has helped make it the <a href="http://www.seia.org/state-solar-policy/Arizona">second-ranked state in the country</a> in installed solar capacity. But APS has <a href="http://www.azcentral.com/opinions/articles/20130411brandt-make-solar-power-subsidiesbeneficial-all-customers.html">called for an overhaul</a> of the state’s net-metering policy and plans to unveil its proposal to the regulators on the Arizona Corporation Commission this Friday.

APS argues that under the current arrangement, the 18,000 Arizonans with rooftop solar aren’t paying enough to cover the cost of maintaining the grid. Even if a house has a solar system, it still uses the utility’s infrastructure. It pulls energy from the grid when the sun is not shining and feeds energy back into the grid when the solar unit is generating more power than the house needs. The utility wants to lower the rate that it pays for solar power produced by these rooftop solar generators, or otherwise recoup the costs. “Our only point is that anybody who uses the grid should pay their fair share of the grid,” said APS spokesperson Jim McDonald.

Opponents, however, say reducing the incentives for rooftop solar will make it a less appealing investment. They argue that APS is going after net metering because it is worried that solar might start to cut into its profit margins, as fewer homeowners are buying from the grid and more are selling <em>to</em> it. McDonald said net metering has “zero impact” on the utility’s profit margins right now — but it could down the line. “Eventually would it become a business issue? It probably would,” he said.

Enter Goldwater. TUSK’s sole concern is protecting net metering, and it has <a href="http://dontkillsolar.com/site/">brought together</a> solar industry and other business groups to push back against APS. If APS is successful, said Goldwater, “they may very well kill rooftop solar in Arizona, and that would be a tragedy.”

A politician in his own right, Goldwater represented California in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1969 to 1983. (He still lives in California, though he is active in Arizona-based conservative organizations like <a href="http://goldwaterinstitute.org/board-directors">the Goldwater Institute</a>, named after his father.) His support for solar, he said, comes from conservative, free-market principles rooted in “creating choices for the American consumer.”

“Choice means competition. Competition drives prices down and the quality up,” Goldwater told <em>Mother Jones</em>. “The utilities are monopolies. They’re not used to competition. That’s what rooftop solar represents to them.”

TUSK’s campaign to date has been creative, to say the least. It includes a <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5r6YCPtB_M&feature=youtu.be">web video</a> of a large gorilla beating up a smaller one as a booming voice condemns the utility monopoly for “trying to kill the independent solar industry in Arizona,” before Goldwater comes on screen to say that it’s “not the American way, it’s not the conservative way.” Another ad <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Vv8pWdXuNA&feature=youtu.be">features a song</a> about APS sung to the tune of “Total Eclipse of the Heart.” (Chorus: “They don’t think consumers are that smart.”) The group has also been running ads on the <em>Drudge Report</em> and <a href="http://www.icontact-archive.com/uQG2BPiu9o2n2AokIg1xPmELhS-dVHHZ?w=3">conservative radio</a> in the state.

The public relations company behind the campaign is Phoenix-based Rose + Moser + Allyn, led by Jason Rose, a well-connected member of the state’s Republican establishment. Rose’s wife, Jordan, is the founder of Rose Law Group, which represents California-based <a href="http://www.solarcity.com/">SolarCity</a>, the county’s <a href="http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/who-reigns-supreme-in-residential-solar/">largest installer of rooftop solar</a>. One environmentalist in the state described Rose, 42, to me as “a hip, young, ultra-right-wing PR guy.”

I asked Rose whether he thought the description fit. “I will gladly accept that moniker,” he replied. The group <a href="http://www.icontact-archive.com/uQG2BPiu9o2n2AokIg1xPjWUq1chdWZZ?w=3">hired a Republican polling firm</a> in March to survey likely voters on solar and found that 88 percent of all voters in the state — and 76 percent of Republicans — supported net metering.

“I think solar has just relied on the left for so long, and it hasn’t made a strong intellectual effort to the right. And it should,” Rose said. “Because it’s entirely consistent with that more libertarian, free-market strand of the Republican Party.”

Rose thinks that Arizona is the leading edge of a solar renaissance among conservatives. “Arizona might be the key focus group on this, and might be a leading indicator of a future shift in Republican attitudes not just in Arizona, but across the country,” he argued.

But his group is getting push-back from APS and its allies — most of which are also conservative. The utility is a major donor to Republican causes in the state, giving $25,000 to the Republican Victory Fund in the 2012 election, according to the Arizona Department of State records. Republicans have long held the majority in the state legislature. The two renewable-friendly Democrats on the Corporation Commission, which will ultimately decide whether or not to approve APS’s net-metering plan, lost reelection bids last fall, leaving an entirely Republican commission. APS has pretty entrenched supporters in the state.

“APS wields a lot of power,” said Tom Mackin, president of the Arizona Wildlife Federation, which isn’t involved in the net-metering fight but has worked on renewable energy issues in the state. “They pretty much get what they want.”

Last week, the national conservative group 60 Plus Association entered the Arizona fight as well, with <a href="http://azsolarfacts.com/">a website</a> and <a href="http://azsolarfacts.com/get-the-facts-video">web ads</a> decrying “corporate welfare” for solar energy and raising the specter of Solyndra, the solar panel company that went bankrupt in 2011. 60 Plus bills itself as the conservative group representing senior citizens (the anti-AARP, if you will). As a 501(c)(4), the group <a href="http://www.factcheck.org/2010/10/60-plus-association/">does not have to disclose</a> its donors. It made <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/summary.php?id=D000046269">big outside expenditures on Republicans</a> in 2012. While 60 Plus has weighed in on <a href="http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/seniors-urge-congress-to-oppose-federal-renewable-energy-standards-62153962.html">a federal renewable energy standard</a> in the past, claiming it would be <a href="http://60plus.org/aw548/">bad for senior citizens</a>, this appears to be the first state issue the group has taken on.

Renewable advocates have accused APS of <a href="http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/New-Attack-on-Solar-in-Arizona">funding the 60 Plus campaign</a>, a charge that APS flatly denied in an interview with <em>Mother Jones</em>. But the group’s involvement is perhaps a sign of just how much attention is being paid to the net-metering fight in Arizona. Bryan Miller, president of the advocacy group Alliance for Solar Choice, <a href="http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/New-Attack-on-Solar-in-Arizona">recently deemed it</a> “the most significant fight for solar in the country.”

That’s why renewable energy advocates in the state say that having a voice like Goldwater’s involved is changing the game. “It really does make a big difference when a group like TUSK comes out and they say directly, ‘Look, the utilities are trying to kill solar,’” said Nancy LaPlaca, a Phoenix-based energy consultant.

Goldwater paints the fight to keep net metering as going to the very heart of Republican values. “Conservatives believe in individual freedom, in choice, in competition,” he said. “We believe all of those things allow people to live a better life — to be able to choose what they want to do and not have a monopoly, or in the case of government, big government, telling them how to live their life. So it’s a very natural place for a conservative to be. I think as time goes by you’ll see more and more Republicans vocalize this.”</p>

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