News and Views from the Desert Protective Council.

Must-See Green TV

March 25th, 2009 Posted by Larry Hogue in renewable energy

In his YouTube video op-ed, No Bailouts for Utilities, environmental journalist Marc Strassman takes on energy utilities’ efforts to squash Feed-In Tariffs. These are the fair payments for solar we’ve blogged about here before. Feed-In Tariffs (also called Renewable Energy Payments) have allowed Germany to install 10 times as much photovoltaic power per year as we have here in California. If we want to move to solar energy quickly, we need a strong Feed-In Tariff, and we have to demand it from our legislators. (For more on FITs, see this article.)

Strassman’s editorial focuses on Florida, where power companies are trying to prevent the 32 cent/kilowatt-hour Feed-In Tariff recently passed in Gainesville from spreading across the state. But utility company lobbying is also the main reason California’s own existing (and little-known) Feed-in Tariff is so weak.

One of the utilities’ main arguments is that Feed-In Tariffs make power more expensive for other ratepayers, when the truth is they raise rates by only a tiny amount. Yet these arguments seem to have made their way into the weak Feed-In Tariff provision in AB 64, introduced last December in California by Democrats in the Assembly.

Strassman calls on everyone to call or write their legislators. You can find a list of your California state representatives here. The message is: California needs a strong Feed-in Tariff for solar that would pay around 32 cents per kilowatt-hour.

You can also contact your cities’ elected officials and ask them to support a Feed-In Tariff, as well as to enact the renewable energy and energy efficiency loan programs authorized under AB 811 (which must be enacted city-by-city). Together, these two incentives will get local renewable and clean energy happening in California.

  1. One Response to “Must-See Green TV”

  2. By sheila on Apr 3, 2009

    hi larry.

    thanks for this. just a quick note to mention AB 811 may also be funded at the county level. jim harvey and i had an excellent meeting with Neil Derry of our Board of Supervisors in San Bernardino and he vowed to find the money, so we are getting started. it was that easy. counties and cities can meet their AB 32 obligations without spending a dime, while improving property values and reducing blackouts, urban heat island effects and energy costs. payback is guaranteed, and homes sell faster and for more money with solar panels.

    i am working on commissioning a feasibility study that will prove, once and for all, that rooftop solar is all we need in this state, and that FITs will accomplish our renewable energy needs faster, cheaper and more environmentally soundly than remote deadly Big Energy infrastructure. it’s a shame that the Big Enviros are opposed to democratic energy solutions that don’t kill wilderness, but we will just have to join together to save our planet despite them…

    keep up the great work!

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