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News
for August 20, 2002
Update on the
Solar Energy Legislation Situation in California.
AB 58 - Net
Metering - The bill still contains detrimental language. Encourage
your legislators to support CALSEIA's efforts to preserve
true net metering up to 1 MW.
in the news...
Bad
Energy
- How PG&E and the state's other private utilities
are trying to derail solar energy in California—again.
[Peter Asmus in Faultline 2002.8.16]
Ken
Adelman, a self-proclaimed "solar warrior," has
been trying for over a year to connect his 30 kilowatt (kW)
solar photovoltaic (solar PV) system in the hills near Watsonville
to Pacific Gas & Electric's (PG&E) grid. Deeply concerned
about environmental issues such as global climate change,
Adelman's intent was to install enough solar PV — small
silicon semi-conductors that transform sunlight into electricity
— to power four electric vehicles and his home.....more
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SB 530 (now
SB 1038) Buy Down (Rebates) and PIER Reseach funding program.
This bill passed out of the Assembly Utilities & Commerce
committee on Monday August 19. This was thee major hurdle.
The rest of the process should go without incident.
In the news...
Renewable
power bill gains steam in Capitol [Contra Costa Times 2002.8.20]
SACRAMENTO
- A measure that would require utilities to have 20 percent
of their electricity produced from renewable sources passed
a key legislative committee Monday....
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SB 1849 Tax
Credit for Solar Energy Systems - The Tax Credit is still
due to be suspended (for YR 2002 & 2003). Send an email
to Governor Davis
with this basic message. "You created a market for solar
energy with the tax credit, the solar industry responded.
The voters want solar energy, many small companies have now
been successfully established to bring it to home owners in
all parts of the State. Please preserve the tax credit by
removing Section 3 of this bill [SB 1849]"
For more information
check these websites: Solarbuzz
CCEnergy
CSC Legislation VoteSolar
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Editorials on
the Solar Energy Legislative Situation in California
An
Energy Shock Absorber [an LA Times Editorial]
Solar
tax credit on chopping block?[Davis Enterprise 2002.8.13]
Solar
program can work for us [Doug Linney (EBMUD) Oakland Tribune
Editorial 200.8.9]
California
Utilities Combat State's Solar-Incentive Plan [Wall Street
Journal 2002.8.12]
Power
Play: Big Energy vs. Solar [Hochschild LA Times Editorial
2002.8.11]
Time
to Clear Up California's Solar Energy Future [Ed Smeloff City
of San Francisco 2002.8.8]
A
message from Bonnie Raitt and Robert Redford...DON'T LET THE
UTILITIES TURN OUT THE LIGHTS ON SOLAR ENERGY [2002.8.8]
Don't
let the sun set on solar energy (Mayor of San Diego - Dick
Murphy - San Diego Union Tribune) 2002.8.9
LETTERS TO THE
EDITOR [from various newspapers in-state]
Maneuver
Casts Shadow on Solar Incentives 2002.8.17 LA TIMES
Letters to Editor...[Re "Power Play: Big Energy vs. Solar,"
Aug. 11] "The backhand maneuvering by the "big three"
utilities in diluting Assembly Bill 58 proves once again that
electricity is one commodity that should never be privatized.
A private utility in the business of generating profits, not
just providing a service, will not want to buy back electricity
at the same rate that it sells it, obviously--even if that
energy is clean and renewable. Market forces don't assign
different values to clean and dirty energy. Only society can
do that. Luckily, solar energy generated on the roofs of private
homes is a no-brainer. It reduces global warming, pollution,
infrastructure needs, depletion of natural resources, dependency
on foreign oil and balance-of-payment deficits. It generates
jobs in construction and manufacturing. Solar panels on rooftops
should be promoted with government loans to homeowners, loans
repaid with that same clean energy that those panels produce
and sold back to the grid at market rates." Rolando Klein/
Pasadena
Utilities'
Plan to Weaken Rate Rule Is Unfair -
2002.8.18: LA TIMES Letters to Editor...[Re "Power
Play: Big Energy vs. Solar," Aug. 11] "The idea
of paying customers lower, wholesale rates for energy they
produce during peak periods, then being charged full rates
at night when energy use is low, is unfair. The utilities'
amendments to AB 58 weaken the law by not crediting consumer's
energy bill at the same rate they pay the utility. Under the
revised law someone could easily end up paying money to the
utilities for producing energy. Yet the utilities have the
gall to claim that it costs other ratepayers money. How dumb
do they think people are? After we got ripped off for tens
of billions of dollars with the energy deregulation scam,
politicians should not expect to get votes by being in the
pockets of the utilities." David Bendall/ Aliso Viejo
Better
the sun set on Sempra than solar energy 2002.8.13:
San Dieogo Union Tribune Letters to the Editor...[Re: "Don't
let the sun set on solar energy" Opinion, Aug. 9]: "San
Diego Mayor Dick Murphy and Councilwoman Donna Frye warn us
that the large private utilities, including Sempra Energy
[San Diego Gas & Electric], want to reduce or eliminate
the amount they will pay for net metering of solar-generated
electricity. Such an action will reduce the incentive for
using solar energy, and all its benefits, at a time when we
need it more and more. It is definitely the wrong message
to be sending." Richard Lawrence /San Diego
SolFest's
place in the sun - At least 5,000 expected to come [Aug. 24-25
Hopland]
Solar
Crusader - Hermann Scheer [Lessons from Germany]
Mantecan
converting new home into one big solar energy plant
L.A.Cathedral
to Tap Solar Power for Electricity
Going
solar -- Vallejo Police Dept is first in the Bay Area [Vallejo]
SMUD
continues its commitment to solar power
Freeman
to lead state power authority
House
rules (CCRs in California)
IN BRIEF
California's
Strategic Plan for Distributed Generation - On June 12,
2002, the Energy Commission adopted a Strategic Plan for Distributed
Generation. The plan is designed to serve as a guidance document
for the coordination of activities related to the deployment
of distributed generation in the State of California. The
Plan will also chart a clear path for the Energy Commission's
own distributed generation activities. See the
plan. Source: E-mail CEC 2002.6.12 via WAPA News.
Buildings Powered
by the Sun - by Kate Zocchetti of the California Energy
Commission. 2002.8.12 Providing examples of buildings in California
that have incorporated Photovoltaics and discusses the associated
benefits. Read
here [pdf]
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