FirstSolar

=... ALEC, which receives much of its funding from the utility industry and fossil-fuel investors like the Kochs, has <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2013/12/alec-calls-penalties-freerider-homeowners-assault-clean-energy" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(241, 96, 44); outline: none; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 32px;">long been an opponent of renewable energy</a>and the Obama administration’s effort to reduce carbon emissions. It's working with conservative activists and corporate interests to fight homeowners who are <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/business/moneybox/2014/09/alec_climate_change_a_fight_over_rooftop_solar_panels_could_decide_america.html" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(241, 96, 44); outline: none; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 32px;">installing solar panels on their roofs</a>. Calling people who install rooftop solar panel “freeriders,” another word for freeloaders, the pro-corporate group is <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/27/opinion/sunday/the-koch-attack-on-solar-energy.html?r=0" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(241, 96, 44); outline: none; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 32px;">actively promoting legislation</a> in states to charge fees, even exorbitant ones, for rooftop solar installations.Behind the lobbyists are the megarich Walton family. The majority owners of the Walmart retail chain also own several energy interests, including a 30% stake in First Solar, which makes the parts for huge commerical installations of solar panels that operate like power plants. A recent<a href="http://ilsr.org/walton-report/" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(241, 96, 44); outline: none;">report by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance</a> shows that the Waltons are giving lobbyist organizations millions to attack renewable energy laws at the state level. Their prime targets are the homeowners and businesses that opt for solar panels to provide their own electricity.“Rooftop solar in the U.S. is growing exponentially and more and more Americans have access to affordable solar power that cuts their energy bills and builds a more sustainable energy future," <a href="http://ilsr.org/walton-report/" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(241, 96, 44); outline: none;">says Erich Pica</a>, president of Friends of the Earth. "Yet, the Waltons’ money is instead limiting average Americans’ ability to go solar and control their own energy future,” Tag-teaming with the Koch brothers and some of the nation’s largest utilities, the Waltons are not being shy in browbeating state lawmakers and agencies to roll back or throw out their renewable energy policies. Over the past few years, they’ve bankrolled campaigns against residential solar in Arizona, Kansas, North Carolina, South Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma and Washington. Results in these states have been mixed, so far. In Arizona, First Solar, with help from the PACs, was successful in securing fees on rooftop solar installations for the state’s energy utilities. Initially, the utilities asked for a $100-a-month surcharge, which would have utterly destroyed any economic incentive to opt for home-generated power. But with some pushback, a compromise was reached, and the new fees for putting solar panels on a home now come to about $5 a month. As relatively small as it is, the new fee seems to have scared off would-be solar adopters in the Grand Canyon state. The thought of the “tax” increasing in coming years may have homeowners thinking twice about installing panels; rooftop installations in Arizona have dropped 40% since the compromise was reached.While not going directly after homeowners with solar rooftops, ALEC was<a href="http://takingnote.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/05/29/ohio-rolls-back-renewables/" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(241, 96, 44); outline: none;">similarly successful in Ohio</a>, making it the first state to hold back on new mandates for renewable energy generation. This had ALEC’s John Eick doing his happy dance. "[Ohio] may have laid the groundwork for other states to move in this direction in the coming year," said ALEC’s legislative analyst.Ohio’s 2008 standards had mandated that utilities sell an increasing amount of power generated by renewable or alternative fuels over time until it comprised a quarter of the state’s electricity output 10 years from now. It also mandated a sharp reduction in power consumption. Those requirements are now frozen for at least two years while a state legislative commission considers altering them.Utilities Versus 'Youtilities'Why are conservative luminaries, corporate lobbyists, and the power companies pushing so hard against the little guy trying to save a few bucks while helping the planet? Because even though <a href="http://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.cfm?id=427&t=3" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(241, 96, 44); outline: none;">solar energy</a> still only accounts for 0.23 percent of the nation’s electricity today, rooftop solar is a real threat to the very existence of utilities in the near future.  For utilities, the most immediate cause for concern is net metering policies in many states, which allow homeowners and businesses to sell back any excess electricity they create with their solar panels. The surplus electricity goes back into the power grid and is sold to other consumers at low rates, often lower than what the utilities charge for electricity themselves. John Eick told the Guardian that ALEC is worried about how individual homeowners are being compensated for feeding electricity back into the system. He said ALEC wants to reduce the rate homeowners are paid for direct power generation and perhaps even penalize homeowners for selling electricity back to the grid.=<a href="http://ecowatch.com/2014/10/15/walmart-walton-renewable-energy" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">http://ecowatch.com/2014/10/15/walmart-walton-renewable-energy</a> ...<p style="margin: 1em 0px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 25.2000007629395px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The report, How The Walton Family Is Threatening Our Clean Energy Future, resolves the contradiction by pointing to the multibillionaires’ main motivation: profit.<p style="margin: 1em 0px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 25.2000007629395px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> <p style="margin: 1em 0px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 25.2000007629395px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">According to the report, “The Walton family—majority owners of Walmart—are <a href="http://ecowatch.com/2014/03/19/alec-legislator-renewable-standard/" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(67, 146, 65); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; -webkit-transition: color 0.2s linear; transition: color 0.2s linear; background: transparent;">impeding America’s transition to a clean energy future</a>. At a time when more than 500,000 households and businesses are generating their own solar electricity, and the U.S. solar industry is employing 143,000 people, the Waltons are funding nearly two dozen organizations working to roll back renewable energy policies, while a Walton-owned company is pushing for regulations aimed at hindering the growth of rooftop solar power.”<p style="margin: 1em 0px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 25.2000007629395px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> <p style="margin: 1em 0px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 25.2000007629395px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">As solar energy generation has spread across the country, traditional fossil fuel-based utilities have been campaigning to weaken state policies that encourage the growth of clean energy, including solar. They’ve especially taken aim at anything that would bolster the spread of rooftop solar installations, which threatens their profits. They’ve been backed by anti-environment groups like the American Legislative Exchange Council (<a href="http://ecowatch.com/search/?q=ALEC" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(67, 146, 65); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; -webkit-transition: color 0.2s linear; transition: color 0.2s linear; background: transparent;">ALEC</a>), Americans for Prosperity and American Enterprise Institute. The Waltons have donated more than $4.5 million to more than 20 such groups, including all three of those. The study also found that the bulk of Walmart’s and the Waltons’ contributions to individual politicians favor those who oppose legislation reducing energy pollution to address <a href="http://ecowatch.com/climate-change-news/" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(67, 146, 65); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; -webkit-transition: color 0.2s linear; transition: color 0.2s linear; background: transparent;">climate change</a>.<p style="margin: 1em 0px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 25.2000007629395px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> <p style="margin: 1em 0px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 25.2000007629395px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The anti-renewables groups have had some successes in rolling back the energy future in Ohio and Arizona. Arizona, for instance, gave the state’s largest utility, APS, the right to <a href="http://ecowatch.com/2013/11/19/arizona-imposes-unprecedented-fee-on-solar-energy-users/" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(67, 146, 65); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; -webkit-transition: color 0.2s linear; transition: color 0.2s linear; background: transparent;">charge a fee</a>to homes with rooftop solar. Since then, according to the ILSO study, rooftop solar installations are declining, and so is the number of jobs in the solar industry.<p style="margin: 1em 0px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 25.2000007629395px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">What’s Walmart’s dog in this fight? Let the report explain:<p style="margin: 1em 0px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 25.2000007629395px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> <p style="margin: 1em 0px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px 0px 0px 30px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 25.2000007629395px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“A Walton-owned solar company, First Solar, was instrumental in helping APS win in Arizona, backing the utility even as the rest of the solar industry joined environmental and consumer groups in opposing the new fees. First Solar builds solar arrays for utilities and, as such, stands to benefit if households are blocked from generating their own electricity, even if it means slowing the overall growth of solar.”<p style="margin: 1em 0px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px 0px 0px 30px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 25.2000007629395px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> <p style="margin: 1em 0px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 25.2000007629395px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">First Solar instigated a proceeding at the World Health Organization that could force several states to repeal solar incentives that encourage job creation there. First Solar does most of its manufacturing in Malaysia, minimizing its contribution to U.S. job creation....10/14==