1/7/2024 0 Comments Rocky mountain power billThe speakers included a veteran that brought the PSC’s’ attention to the actual cost of coal study by the late Dr. Based on a transcript of the hearing, over a hundred people showed up to comment, many of whom expressed anger at their monopoly utility company’s efforts to increase fees on solar. Voyles’ anti-solar testimony was far outweighed by Utah residents and ratepayers of Rocky Mountain Power who were critical of the utility’s proposals. A members page on CEA’s website shows that many utilities are members, including EEI, Dominion, Florida Power & Light, Louisville Gas and Electric and Kentucky Utilities, SCANA, and Xcel Energy. Both MGE and We Energies said they were not involved with CEA. The PSC dismissed the petition saying it would not be included in the record. In 2014, it was caught submitting a fraudulent petition to the Wisconsin PSC that “supported” the Madison Gas & Electric and We Energies fixed-rate proposals. In fact, the LBNL study concludes that a cost-shift doesn’t occur until rooftop solar penetration reaches 10%, and neither Utah nor Indiana are anywhere near that threshold.Ĭonsumer Energy Alliance is the organization that is run out of the offices of the Washington D.C.-based PR firm, HBW Resources. In March 2017, James Voyles appeared in Indianapolis to testify in the Indiana House Utilities, Energy, and Telecommunications Committee in favor of legislation that ultimately became law that ended net metering in the state. In his testimony, Voyles used the cost-shift argument, and surprisingly used a 2017 study from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory as evidence – but the study does not actually support Voyles’ argument. ![]() James Voyles testifying in the Indiana House of Representatives People who have watched solar debates play out in other states might be familiar with Voyles and CEA. CEA’s James Voyles told the commissioners that he is “probably a new face” to them but that he represents a “consumer advocacy organization” and was there to speak in favor of Rocky Mountain Power’s proposal. A Consumer Energy Alliance representative submitted comments to the commission during a public hearing, and Ashley Brown from the Harvard Electricity Policy Group had an op-ed published, both echoing the cost-shift argument.Ĭonsumer Energy Alliance continues its utility-funded assault on solar in UtahĪ few days before the PSC agreed to delay hearings involving the intervenors in the case, it held a public hearing on the issue, and the Consumer Energy Alliance showed up. Martinez has not been the only third party connected to the utility industry to weigh in this month. Their website currently features EEI has a partner, along with several utility companies and oil and gas companies. The organization was created in 2012, had $79,850 in revenue in 2013 and received $10,000 from EEI that year. Hispanics In Energy has been a key organization in Edison Electric Institute’s campaign of working with third-party organizations to build-up the narrative that rooftop solar causes a cost-shift in states with paltry amounts of rooftop solar energy generation. In fact, in 2016, as Illinois legislators were debating energy legislation that included rooftop solar policies, Martinez wrote a similar op-ed for the Daily Herald that called for policy makers to change the state’s net metering policy. Martinez is a former commissioner from Michigan, CEO of the Ruben Strategy Group LLC, and President of Hispanics In Energy. ![]() ![]() On August 19, Monica Martinez wrote an op-ed that was published in The Deseret News that echoed the utility industry’s cost-shift myth and called for the PSC to fix the issue. The Utah state Public Service Commission delayed hearings over Rocky Mountain Power’s proposed new fees on rooftop solar customers until the week of September 18 as parties continue their settlement talks, but this has not stopped people with ties to the utility industry from continuing efforts to sway regulators and the public about rooftop solar.
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