Revolutionary Power by Shalanda Baker

Author:Shalanda Baker [Baker, Shalanda]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

Conservative Advocacy to Dismantle Rooftop Solar Programs

It does not help that the utility industry has its own conservative legislative advocacy organization, in the form of ALEC, to parrot its demands. ALEC is a well-financed and well-resourced legislative think tank that advances conservative causes. The group has long been associated with the fossil fuel industry and the corporations that rain pollution down on low-income communities and communities of color.

The intimate connections between ALEC and the utility industry are clear. For example, while researching material for this book, my research team and I uncovered identical charts used by both the utility industry and ALEC to advocate for the curtailment of NEM. In the July 12, 2013, filing by APS referenced earlier, APS used two key figures to argue that solar customers do not pay their fair share for grid maintenance. The first figure, “Typical Grid Interaction for Rooftop Solar,” illustrates the typical electricity generation curve for a solar customer. See figure 4-1. The image is meant to reflect the solar customer’s heavy reliance on the grid and to support the argument that solar customers should receive less compensation for the solar energy they produce.

In the middle of the day, between 12 p.m. and 4 p.m., the figure indicates, the customer’s electricity generation covers the customer’s electricity use, and the customer is able to export excess generation the customer produces to other utility customers. Under the customer’s generation curve is a note, “Customer generation, grid support needed.” In the portion of the curve showing the customer exporting extra energy to the grid, the chart notes, “Customer uses grid to export excess power.”38 On either side of the customer generation curve are the remaining hours of the day when, in the utility’s filing, “APS provides power.”39 The chart comes straight out of the playbook.

ALEC uses the exact chart in its report “Reforming Net Metering: Providing a Bright and Equitable Future,” published in March 2014 and written by Tom Tanton. In ALEC’s report, the solar customer chart used by APS appears under a new title, “Typical Energy Production and Consumption for a Small Customer with Solar PV,” but the details and images are identical. The bottom line is that solar customers who receive a one-for-one retail rate exchange for the energy they produce are unfairly burdening the rest of the utility’s customers and relying on grid services without paying for them. The use of identical charts in ALEC’s report and the utility’s regulatory proceeding reveals a cozy relationship between the fossil fuel interests and the utility sector. It should also raise red flags concerning the authenticity of a utility’s race-based advocacy against NEM. Figure 4-1 reproduces the image used across ALEC’s and APS’s materials.

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