You Can't Own ALL the Solar, Mr. Monopoly, Not with Your Huge Profits

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Saturday September 28, 2013 · 12:22 PM PDT

2013/09/28 · 12:22

Imagine making 14 percent post tax profit with no competition in a captured market, on electricity service, over 4 times what some other utilities make? That's the pleasure of being Xcel Energy in Colorado. And right now they aim to protect all that by laming Colorado's net metering policy, the nation's best policy for rooftop solar, the power generation that can be owned at the household and which lowers peoples' power bills so much.

It's one thing to allow a company to make a fair return on investment, it's quite another to let that monopoly turn your state into the company's cash cow moving to destroy the growth of distributed generation and the local ownership it entails.

In Germany, the world center of distributed generation, small operators like families and farmers own 10 percent of the entire nation's power generation, an astonishing accomplishment and an integral part of how they acheived 20 percent renewables on the grid.

The US was founded, in large part, on the goal to break loose of monopoly powers. And with solar modules getting rapidly more affordable, we now have the means to push back against utilities owning all of power generation, a huge market sector. We should fight to change the utility business model from one of selling a commodity through centralized generation to one of providing a wide variety of services to go with distributed generation and a broad base of ownership in this critical market sector.

Xcel's attack on net metering makes us confront the question: Who should own solar generation when the monopoly model is losing favor, and when this monopoly in particular is protecting embarrassing profits?

Please read my article on how Xcel is making new investments in its own solar generation while simultaneously attacking the kind of solar you and I can own. Share with friends in Colorado and anywhere that rooftop is being eyed by big utilities. This battle is going far and wide.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...

HELP!! Coal based utility mangling democracy in Boulder Colorado

AnneBB

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Sunday September 08, 2013 · 11:58 AM PDT

2013/09/08 · 11:58

Boulder CO has had 3 elections to get loose from its coal-based utility and create its own system for rapid emissions reductions, low rates and high reliability. As we proceed and prevail, this model of action will change the way investor owned utilities do business because this action is replicable far and wide. And right now Xcel is pouring money into our town with a misleading ballot initiative to flop over our election of 2 years ago.

Both our clean energy aims and our democracy are being molested by a hugely profitable corporate monopoly, so we need FUNDS to fight well for this November's election.
If you care to support and repost this funding drive, it would be critically helpful.
GO HERE => http://www.upworthy.com/...

Above is Upworthy's boost for New Era Colorado - a youth focused voter registration and education group whose canvassing won the 2011 election. The video is amazing and will tell you all. The drive has gone viral, but we have 10 days more to go and WANT THE DAILY KOS' HELP!

Fortunately the public clearly resonates with our cause - with 4600+ donors so far, so I hope you'll help us to reach even more in the last several days of this drive so we'll be as strong as possible for what's ahead.

USEFUL TO REMEMBER: Colorado is under the microscope by those looking at climate change action - and by fossil fuel interests. Yale's Project of Climate Change Communication choose to do a survey on our state because, according to Leiserowitz of the project (as reported by the Boulder Daily Camera), Colorado was a 'bellwether' state for its 'purple' political balance, diverse regional geography, transitioning demographics and because 'it is experiencing the local effects of climate change in a severe way.' 'We found that Coloradans are seriously observing drought, wildfires and declines in snowpack,' he said, explaining the state's 70 percent consensus on climate change. 'They are connecting the dots between a global phenomenon and its local effects.'

Needless to say our recently passed Senate Bill 252 (to increase the renewable energy mandate in our rural areas - a measure sure to bring more jobs into those areas) was pelted with all manner of false, nefarious advertising by the Koch Brothers to prevent the Governor from signing this clean energy measure.

So you can just guess what the utilities around the nation may bring to our city to prevent Boulder from prevailing in this vote to protect our legal options to buy back our electric supply for the sake or rapid emissions reduction, good rates and reliability. I know utilities are nervously watching this, because utility exec's ask me about this at conferences. Please support and SHARE the story about New Era's crowdfunding!

Truthout's reporting on this is easily the best, and its longitudinal
http://truth-out.org/...
And it's not just local ares of the US looking to municipalize for clean energy - check out these cities in Germany, such as BERLIN
http://www.theguardian.com/...
Huffington Post's take on the crowdfunding drive
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
And the Yale survey of Colorado
http://environment.yale.edu/...
See the report in the Daily Camera on Yale's survey
http://www.dailycamera.com/...

RSS