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

I had a feeling ALEC was going to push for something like this eventually. ALEC is a highly reactionary group which freaks out when ever something starts to pose a threat to the ability of Capitalist to accrue more Capital.

Solar Panels are a very good thing for people to have installed in their homes on just about every level one could think of. Besides it being an excellent true green energy, it saves the government a ton of money in infrastructure and allows the economy to balance trade out better due to reducing energy imports. Even a Capitalist should be in support of this because it creates a high growth industry with long term market sustainability.

ALEC is simply freaking out and being reactionary. Sadly, ALEC has a lot of influence in D.C. so they might actually be able to get this kind of legislation into law. I would hope there is some kind of planned push back against ALEC and this plan to block the development and growth of people using solar panels. Political action groups do in fact work both ways. Yet, the American political landscape is polluted with power reactionary groups like ALEC.

Where is the voice of reason and sound logic in America these days?

Can't you just not pay them? Do they have control of the solar panels and where the power flows to? I don't know much about how solar power panels work, other than it receives energy from sunlight and then distributes it.

reply to post by VoidHawk

When will you guys stand up and say ENOUGH!!!

They won't! It takes a lot of energy to actually have to walk away from the computer and do anything about it! Pure laziness if you ask me! Americans have no problem complaining about this, that, and what not. But to actually get out and practice their right to free speech (with what freedoms we have left), well, that would pop that secure little bubble their living in. And we can't have that!

A lot of Americans seem to be in the "know", so why do they not act upon it? All I hear is..."the republicans did this, the democrats did that, big government, those damn pharmaceuticals, the 1%, wall street, Obama, blah, blah, blah! The drama is astounding!

Tomorrow, we will hear some more craziness about how Americans are getting the raw end of the deal. But all it is, is the same $h!t, different day! If Americans want their country back, then they are going to have to make some hard choices, and those choices are not going to feel all warm and cuddly!

I know I will probably catch hell for this post, but the truth is the truth! There is no denying it!

reply to post by Southern 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.

wtf?????

Is this some kinda cruel joke ???

I honestly can't believe I'm reading this. So, I guess it's gonna be forbidden to go off the grid....I wonder why...surely it must be for my own benefit.

Makes me sick....

MarioOnTheFly
reply to post by Southern 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.

wtf?????

Is this some kinda cruel joke ???

I honestly can't believe I'm reading this. So, I guess it's gonna be forbidden to go off the grid....I wonder why...surely it must be for my own benefit.

Makes me sick....

No, it's real enough. The system was set up that you have the solar panels on your roof, some storage batteries in the basement, then you could store up all the electricity your system collected, then resell the electricity back to the grid if you had any surplus (Either on very hot sunny days, or very cold winter days).

But of course the power companies didn't like that because ... "Well, we don't know if the energy is actually renewable or whether it came from our power grid. Somebody might charge up their batteries using *OUR* energy at off-peak times and then sell it back to us at peak times".

In reality, they make their best profits at times of peak consumption. It is well known in the energy business that when demand is high, the cost of energy is set by the most expensive power station (coal/oil), when demand is low, the cost of energy is set by the cheapest power station. For every customer that becomes self-sufficient, that reduces the peak demand by a fraction. One home = 15 Kilowatts, one thousand homes = 15 Megawatts = one power station. If just one thousand homes are solar powered with a wood chip firebox, that reduces demand by one power station.

JackSparrow17
reply to post by mbkennel

 

Is that so? Read this. Apparently our state(s) legislators have say in this, so ipso facto, the government is still invloved, albeit in a Bilderberg sort of way. This is just one of the ways that politicians are devoid of souls, as they have sold them to corporations. Facial.

How ALEC Serves As A 'Dating Service'...

Right. The problem though is certain people complain about "big government" and think the problem is government regulation when it isn't quite that---it is for-profit private enterprise manipulating government. The solution is not less government (in this case, because the monopoly utility would do even worse things) but honest government working for the masses.

In practice, in this case, the left is correct and the right is wrong.

stormcell
But of course the power companies didn't like that because ... "Well, we don't know if the energy is actually renewable or whether it came from our power grid. Somebody might charge up their batteries using *OUR* energy at off-peak times and then sell it back to us at peak times".

And so what? Utilities operate systems to do exactly that, to mitgate peak demands which is expensive on their systems.

Besides, once somebody's paid for energy, it's THEIRS, not the utilities' any more. If they want to sell it back at a superior time? Why not? No law against buy low sell high.

In reality, they make their best profits at times of peak consumption.

Energy generators, yes. Utilities which buy from generators have to pay. A monopoly distribution utility is usually a customer of these generators and so should welcome the reduction in peak.

In practice it seems that the real problem for this revanchist utility is that some of its customers are starting to COMPETE with it on peak power generation! Wanh wanh wanh! They're hurting because they have a transmission monopoly and that isn't enough.

What else do they want? Charge people for a "A/C turn off fee" for causing "instability"? If they knew how they would.

A utility is granted a monopoly because of the physical reality of the distribution infrastructure which isn't redundantly duplicated. Electric power, however can come from anywhere. Yay electrons.

In my opinion: since transmission distribution is a natural physical monopoly, the business should be organized as a non-profit mutual corporation, like a credit union or mutual insurance pool (i.e. any profit is distributed proportionally to customers). Any internal power production should be charged at cost, and any additional power necessary bought on the market, including buying power from distributed solar generators.

That means there shouldn't be utility company public shares, just bonds.