Utility Monopoly Pushes a Solar Tax To Keep The Public From Going Solar
(News release)
Arizona Public Service is taking the drastic step of proposing two plans to the Arizona Corporation Commission that would drastically reduce ratepayer solar savings and undermine the thriving rooftop solar industry in Arizona.
Right now rooftop solar customers save about 70% on their electric bills thanks to reduced demand and fair market credits they receive for excess power they send back to the grid.
APS is seeking to boost profits by crushing the production of rooftop solar power and they want the Corporation Commission to approve one of two options to achieve that goal.
One option simply taxes those savings away through a series of surcharges and fixed fees that would only apply to solar customers. And it’s an all year tax. Retirees who spend part of the year in Arizona would have to pay those fees whether they are consuming power or not. Solar customers would have to pull the plugs on their solar panels or pay these fees. This amounts to a solar tax.
The second option allows employs a European Socialist model in which APS basically steals excess solar power that rooftop solar customers send back to the grid; paying just four cents per kilowatt hour and selling it for 12 cents or more. This is a method commonly in place in some socialist countries in Europe where the power collective confiscates the electricity generated by private citizens.
Both options would wipe out most if not all of any savings someone would receive by going solar. Both options destroy the economic benefits of going solar.
If either plan is approved, a utility monopoly gets a windfall, and Arizona’s thriving solar industry would be decimated.
Rooftop solar represents the only viable competition to utility monopolies. The industry also employs about as many people as APS and SRP combined.
APS is asking regulators to tax its solar competitors out of business. Similar schemes have been rejected in conservative states such as Idaho and Louisiana.
T.U.S.K (Tell Utilities Solar won’t be Killed) was formed to stand for energy choice and energy independence.
T.U.S.K. Chairman Barry Goldwater Jr. stated, “It was bound to happen in Arizona, somebody is trying to tax the sun. APS wants solar customers to pay more because they use less power. Only a monopoly would come up with a plan like that. Let’s hope our Arizona Corporation Commissioners don’t fall for it.”
To learn more about T.U.S.K. visit www.dontkillsolar.com
T.U.S.K. believes that rooftop solar is similar to a charter school—it provides acompetitive alternative to the monopoly. Monopoly utilities aren’t known for reducing costs or for driving business innovation, but the Arizona solar industry is. Solar companies have a track record of aggressive cost reduction in Arizona. The more people use rooftop solar, the less power they need to buy from the utilities. Energy independence for Arizonans means smaller profits for the utilities, so APS is doing everything it can to stop the spread of independent solar.
