Letter to Vermon Times-Argus exposes grasping power Utility
“It really never ceases to amaze me what corporate America will try to do.
Idaho Public Utilities Commission recently rejected a proposal to raise monthly fees paid by homeowners who install solar panels.
That was after a June 26 decision by Louisiana Public Service Commission to maintain payment rates that utilities must make to solar-system owners for electricity. The commission voted 3-2 against a proposed fee increase supported by Entergy Corp.
It seems that Entergy and Idaho Power feel that solar-powered homes are not paying their fair share of costs to maintain power lines and respond to outages since they often have lower monthly electric bills. It seems they believe the lost revenue resulting from net metering can cut into utility profits.
They don’t want to hear of the benefits those installations deliver such as reducing the need to build new power plants, I guess. No matter what the capacity of the home system at least some of the generated power never even sees the grid since it is used directly by the home itself, and what does go to the grid is delivered at peak demand time for the utility.
The industry’s main trade group, Edison Electric Institute, calls the growth of small-scale solar systems the “largest near-term threat” to the industry.
Imagine that, my roof-top photovoltaic solar is a threat to the industry. Wow. So what is next, I wonder. Make people who go off the grid completely pay a power bill anyway?
This company is interested in their bottom line. They will say anything, even if it discourages individuals who are considering entering the distributed generation side of green energy.
Once again Entergy has proven it is not in line with the direction Vermont has chosen.
Shut down Vermont Yankee now and mandate Entergy pay the decommissioning and radioactive waste cleanup cost.”
Alfred S. Blakey
2 Responses
I’m off-grid now and be damned if I will be a slave to the corporate utility monopolies ever again.
Vermont Wankee should pay for their own crimes against nature. Private citizens don’t get away with even a millionth of what VW is.
We know that utility companies are some of the most unethical corporations. But Bluegrass Energy has them all beat as being the absolute worst in the country.