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

[go west young man]

Source: The Guardian

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

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

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

---

The so called party of "personal responsibility" (chuckle) now wants to make everyone use a corporation rather than install solar panels themselves and even wants to penalize those who do so.

[JDPriestly]

1. This is major here in Southern California. Wow! That is just extreme beyond belief.

The corporations want to enslave us. The sun rays that shine on my roof belong to me. Big energy has no right to deprive me of my use and enjoyment of the sun rays on my roof.


I thought that the conservatives wanted to protect private property rights. This is a total violation of my rights over my private paid-for property.

[Jesus Malverde]

37. There seems to be a lot of misunderstanding.

Electric companies are freaking out that as solar gets better and better people will love and DEPEND on them less.

Currently in California if you install solar. The law requires them to buy your excess power. The claim is when they pay you for power your getting a deal because many homeowners are ending up with a zero bill. The remaining non solar ratepayers are left to fund the maintenance of the grid.

They are right this is a real problem for the private utilities. Their business model is unsustainable and the answer is to NATIONALIZE the grid and subsidize it. Solar is the future, but it's not going to be easy. Every month the private utility monopolies bribe their respective states through massive sales tax collection. Creepily as our rates go up so does the amount of money collected to be spent by the state.

The same sad relationship exists with gasoline where every mile of fuel efficiency is less money for the state. We need to turn that model upside down and reward those doing the right thing, for doing the right thing.

[Scuba]

41. +1,000

[sendero]

42. OTOH..

.... most of that (solar) power is generated at PEAK USAGE time which prevents the electric utility from having to create more generating capacity.

This is a very complex issue but as usual the money guys will probably eventually get their way. Also, lets be clear "maintenance of the grid" is a small portion of the cost of delivering power compared to generating capacity and fuel. Plus, the "have to buy the power they generate" is also misleading since the amount paid per KwH is much less than what consumers are paying for a KwH.

So I'll have to pass on buying this bullshit.

[Alamuti Lotus]

2. NOT an Onion article... NOT an Onion article?! I have to keep telling myself, re-reading the remarks

What a remarkable barometer on the desperation of the system owners. Insights of this caliber are worth their weight in freeriders.

[KamaAina]

3. "They are not paying for the infrastructure they are using."

And I suppose the owners of big fossil fuel and nuke plants are?

[arcane1]

7. You noticed that too.

The building of that infrastructure is usually tax-deductible anyway.

This might just be the biggest bit of assholery I've seen from ALEC, and that's saying a lot!

[Igel]

25. But that still means they invested in it.

I can deduct certain things from my taxes. That's different from getting a tax credit for the full amount.

I deducted my computer. My federal tax rate was 6%. So 6% of the cost of the computer was "paid for" (as many would have it) by the government. It doesn't mean the government paid for my computer. In fact, since the computer was used to produce far more revenue than it cost, perhaps it's best not to see it as a subsidy but as an investment with a very high rate of return (if we're into viewing the government as a capitalist investor).


The rest of the argument is the same as used by people to say non-profits should be taxed. They use part of the commons. They don't contribute to it. If they did, it would cost everybody less, so the thinking goes that everybody is subsidizing the churches.

Industry largely built the infrastructure, the "commons." In so doing, they charged customers money for most of the cost. If people use it with having paid for it or contributing to its upkeep, the price we pay is higher than it would otherwise be. If the reasoning dealing with non-profits is valid, then the conclusion is that all the customers of the companies who built or maintain the infrastructure are subsidizing the small non-direct electricity producers.

People like the reasoning when it's applied to non-profits, esp. if they don't like the non-profits. They don't like the reasoning when it's applied to small non-direct generators, esp. if they like the idea of small non-direct generators.

[OrwellwasRight]

46. Actually, why are the taxpayers subsidizing your computer?

They aren't subsidizing mine.

And excuse me, but "Industry largely built the infrastructure, the "commons."" couldn't be farther from the truth. If by "built," you mean the government hired a contractor to build roads, schools, parks, and sewers, yes. But they didn't build it for free out of the goodness of their hearts. Taxpayers paid for infrastructure, and we pay for upkeep. There are no "gifts" from private industry that we need to be grateful for.

And as for non-profits, maybe they should be taxed. I don't think the IRS is doing a very good job differentiating soup kitchens from Crossroads GPS and Americans for Tax Reform.

[eggplant]

19. If they are using it, then they are paying to use it.

If they aren't , then STFU, ALEC.

[Aristus]

4. So much for the party of 'self-reliance'...

[KansDem]

12. They claim they don't want Americans dependent on the government...

But dependent on the corporations is an entirely different matter.

[Uncle Joe]

30. Ding, ding, ding!! You just won a brand new 1974 Chevy Vega!

[KansDem]

31. Hey! I test drove a new Vega in 1971

It might have been me but it seemed to vibrate a lot. I thought it might be due to the aluminum block(?)

I didn't buy it and went instead for a used 1969 VW bug.

[Uncle Joe]

32. I just checked with Bob at the front office

and he said you could have a brand new 1969 VW if that's what you prefer.

[SDjack]

5. Kochs don't have enough. They want us to slave for them. If I open the blinds in my house to let

winter Sun lower my heating bill, I will owe the Kochs.

[Redfairen]

6. This quote shows how wicked and greedy they really are.

"This is an issue we are going to be exploring," Eick said. He said Alec wanted to lower the rate electricity companies pay homeowners for direct power generation – and maybe even charge homeowners for feeding power into the grid.

"As it stands now, those direct generation customers are essentially freeriders on the system. They are not paying for the infrastructure they are using. In effect, all the other non direct generation customers are being penalised," he said.

Eick dismissed the suggestion that individuals who buy and install home-based solar panels had made such investments. "How are they going to get that electricity from their solar panel to somebody else's house?" he said. "They should be paying to distribute the surplus electricity."

[Ed Suspicious]

8. Maybe ALEC could try something new by not working to fuck up people's lives.

[FiveGoodMen]

10. That's the only purpose they have.

That's why there IS an ALEC.

They want the laws written so that we are their property and their slaves.

"The comfort of the rich depends on an abundant supply of the poor."

[FiveGoodMen]

9. This is a war.

If ALEC survives, democracy and personal freedom do not.

That simple.

[silverweb]

11. Because... because...

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

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

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

[dbackjon]

13. They are running ads in Arizona against "freeloading" solar panels

[bucolic_frolic]

14. There's a tax or fee for everything

not sure what the status of energy is in various states

for those in deregulated energy states, the fees are unreal

I used to get a bill, the electric company owned everything, it was
one fee

Now the list of charges grows and grows

Each component of energy has been vivisected into parts for fees

Line fees, generation, transmission, tax, billing fee $10

I'f turn the whole thing off if I could, like i did cable TV

And the energy suppliers ... are now UNregulated, but what consumer knows that?

My last supplier raised my fee from about 7.2 cents to 9.89 cents

I asked why? Because there was an energy spike that would have made
your rate higher, so we converted everyone to a flxed rate

So you have to check your bill each month

I found a natural gas generator at 6.99 cents fixed for 12 months

and there may or may not be a disconnect or change supplier fee
with these plans

[The Blue Flower]

15. Thank you for posting this latest greedy nonsense from ALEC

We need to circulate this info as widely as possible and then fight it.

[truedelphi]

16. This is to be expected, so we have to FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT

Until ALEC is dead.

Some solar energy news list I'm on was reporting how a Sacramento landlord spent $ 22,000 to solarize his two dozen apartments.

And he now pays his tenants utilities in full - six bucks a month for all two dozen apartments. (His cost to solarize is hidden inside their rental fees - but as they are still saving some $ 60 a month, they all realize they are better off.) Even if you are very thrifty it usually costs $ 60 a month in Calif, as we are still paying off the Enronized costs we racked up when the Enron thing was happening with PG & E. I Forget how many tens of billions we consumers are still out because that happened.)

[Jack Rabbit]

17. This is corporate fascism

The Koch brothers and their corporate and political allies are attempting to force homeowners to buy from private industry a service that at least some homeowners are confident of doing themselves.

This sounds like something to expect out of the TPP/TPIP, but the Kochs don't need to wait for that. They can do it themselves in order to keep you from doing it yourself.

And they do don't want democracy to work if it going to just make it difficult for corporate polluters to make a profit.

[go west young man]

18. ALEC makes no mention, of course,

that we the tax payers subsidized these energy companies(grids) all along while they pretty much "monopolized" things. And now they want people to pay for use of the grid we subsidized instead of giving the people something back. They are the complete opposite of "free market". They are corporate "takers" and nothing more.

[dballance]

20. So a personal mandate for power is good

BUT a personal mandate for insurance is bad.

Do they even realize they're making, basically, the same argument they're opposing for the ACA mandate?

[thefool_wa]

23. The sad thing is that I expect that they do

I am convinced that spreading cognitive dissonance is part of their strategy to maintain power.

[randr]

21. Koch roaches at it again

[Gothmog]

22. ALEC is a disgusting organization

The only group still funding ALEC is the energy industry and so ALEC is coming up with ideas that are horrible

[blm]

24. Next will be to tax those who use sun to tan naturally instead of paying for tanning beds.

.

[valerief]

26. Ah, freedumb. It's like a vice. nt

[Old and In the Way]

27. Energy policy is political.

The Koch party is all about coal and oil. Democrats need to understand that renewables are all about decentralization, subsidizing Big Oil with Defense expenditures, and ruining our environment with dirty coal. One policy gives future generation of Americans a better environment and economic opportunity...the other makes the Kochs richer at our personal/national expense. I truly wish the rubes that vote against their best interests will figure this out befiore it's too late.

[Treant]

28. They'd hate me

There's a bank of solar chargers on southern and western windowsills, happily and cheaply recharging batteries of all types and styles.

In an additional kick in the butt to Western corporations, I built most of the chargers myself, many from scrap parts from things that were built poorly and broke.

I have no particular objection to them charging per kWh dumped onto the grid, as long as they do that to all power generation stations, including gas, hydro, oil and coal. Because last time I checked, I paid a hookup fee and transmission fee on my bill already.

[paleotn]

29. Wait a minute....

...I thought ALEC was all for "free riders." You know, those who don't want to pay their fair share in taxes, yet take advantage of a civilized society.

[TRoN33]

33. What next?

ALEC want to claim the sun as their own? Privatizing the beaches, lakes, seas, oceans, water, trees, and air?!?

[RVN VET]

34. Did they wait until Spain explored this idea before coming out with it on their own?

http://www.aljazeera.com/video/europe/2013/10/spain-approves-tax-solar-panels-20131088950355608.html

And here:
http://www.thelocal.es/20131112/spains-solar-police-to-kick-in-your-door

Try it out overseas first. See how it goes down. Then gradually "suggest" it over here, then lobby for it, then push your bought-n-paidfor senators and representatives to write bills. Then sit back and watch the money roll in from your corporate children.

[JDPriestly]

35. California is not going to buy into this horror. Why does ALEC hate America? That's

what I want to know.

[Jesus Malverde]

38. The PUC is already looking at it.

CA Public Utilities Commission Slams Net Metering

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) just released its survey of an increasingly popular incentive for rooftop solar, and that survey has solar advocates seeing red.

In its Draft Net Energy Metering Cost-Effectiveness Evaluation, the CPUC forecasts that California's rooftop solar owners who have so-called Net Energy Metering (NEM) agreements with their local utilities, in which excess energy produced by solar panels can roll a property's electric meter backwards, will end up costing other ratepayers more than $1 billion a year in 2020. That's an assessment that is sure to be welcomed by California's utilities, which have lately been arguing that NEM customers don't pay their fair share of the costs of maintaining the state's power grid.

Needless to say, advocates of greater adoption of rooftop solar are very unhappy with the draft evaluation, saying that it doesn't reflect the full scope of benefits that NEM -- and the greater solar deployment it promotes -- offer to the public at large.

"The study design was stacked against solar," Susannah Churchill, solar policy director at Vote Solar, told the San Jose Mercury News' Dana Hull. "To do a cost-benefit analysis and not include benefits like public health and jobs just inflates utility claims. Rooftop solar is a threat to the utility business model, and they are doing everything possible to stop its momentum."


http://www.kcet.org/news/rewire/solar/passive-solar/public-utilities-commission-slams-net-metering.html

[Lodestar]

36. There needs to be a strong & loud counter movement against privatized utilities

and regulations that insist upon centralized utilities for all. The only way to meet climate change
is through a vast, innovative and DIVERSE set of options for energy.

[Jesus Malverde]

39. I'd like to see municipal broadband as well...nt

[SeattleVet]

40. Seattle City Light pays me for the power I put into the grid.

Then turns around and charges the neighbors for that same power, so the utility doesn't have to generate as much. We are actually lessening what they would have to spend on generation capacity.

[myrna minx]

43. K&R n/t

[Hugin]

44. KnR

[go west young man]

45. More ALEC activities in the making.

The Guardian link provides quite a lot of insight into Alec activities, including their summit this week in DC where they are attempting to change their name so they can carry on their nefarious plans. Here's an excerpt:

The documents seen by the Guardian show that Alec is hoping to avoid legal, tax and ethical challenges by creating a separate sister organisation it calls the "Jeffersonian Project". The new body would be categorised as a 501(c)(4) social welfare organisation, a designation that would allow Alec to be far more overt in its lobbying activities than its current charitable status as a 501(c)(3).

"Any activity that could be done by Alec may be done by Jeffersonian Project if legal counsel advises it would provide greater legal protection or lessen ethics concerns," a note on the proposed new body to Alec's board of directors says. The note adds that the Jeffersonian Project would remove "questions of ethical violations made by our critics and state ethics boards and provides further legal protection".

[AnnieBW]

47. Go Fuck Yourselves, ALEC

I love my solar panels. We generate about 1.5kw of power a day.

[Bragi]

48. Note the U.S media blackout on this

This 4-day old story from the Guardian has been picked up by several U.S blogs and environmental outlets, but far as I can see, NOT A SINGLE mainstream U.S media outlet has reported this ALEC initiative.

I am constantly amazed by the degree to which U.S media collaborate to ignore important stories that challenge the status quo.

To be clear, I'm not surprised, but I am amazed at the thoroughness with which they unanimously black out stories.