Policies Can Help, Hinder Industry
By Liz Merry
Published: June 24, 2009
Being part of the solar industry means helping to fight its policy battles. This has been one of those topsy-turvy policy weeks for the solar industry that makes us newcomers really appreciate the “steady as you go” nature displayed by industry long timers.
At the federal level, the Waxman-Markey global warming bill lost much of its potential effectiveness on its way out of a major committee. The weakening of the bill’s goals and methodology dismayed clean energy advocates. Examples included changing the bill’s proposed CO2 emissions targets to 2005 levels (even though the original 1990 levels may be too high already) and reducing the likelihood that renewable energy generation will be a major part of the strategy. The Solar Energy Industries Association responded with a press release that expressed hope for a strengthened bill as it progresses, and most advocacy groups decried the watered-down legislation and rattled their “strengthen it or kill it” action alerts. Read more about the bill and its issues here. (Read about the American Solar Energy Society’s carbon policy recommendations at ases.org.)
Meanwhile, utilities in California are threatening to use their policy trump card (a cap on net metering) to stop the photovoltaic (PV) industry in its tracks. The investor-owned utilities in California are allowed to dictate how much distributed solar they have to support with retail net metering. One utility is getting closer to their limit of 2.5 percent, and they are opposing legislation that would raise the limit to 5 percent of their capacity. This issue is the ultimate “smack down” for the PV industry in the most active PV market in the U.S. If the utilities are allowed to continue exercising a full-stop break on the industry with net-metering caps we are unlikely to reach sustainable solar industry goals. Let them know you support raising the cap here. Or visit solar-nation.org for more tips on what you can do to take action on both national and local policy issues.
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