"Big Energy's New Bugaboo" By David Sirota at Salon

[applegrove]

Big Energy's New Bugaboo

By David Sirota at Salon

http://www.salon.com/2012/06/20/big_energys_new_bugaboo/

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In recent years, this faux populism has been focused on undermining so-called renewable portfolio standards — aka state legislative mandates requiring utilities to get a certain amount of their power from clean energy sources. Deploying its bankrolled think tanks such as the Manhattan Institute, Big Energy has tried to turn the debate over these standards into the 21st century version of the archetypal Spotted Owl controversy – a battle whereby effete environmentalists are depicted as prioritizing pie-in-the-sky tree-hugging to the alleged detriment of everyone else. In this new version of the cartoonish parable, the enviros’ push for cleaner power is lambasted as a stealth effort to persecute Joe and Jane Ratepayer.

But now that most states have adopted renewable portfolio standards and empirical evidence has obliterated the fear-mongering narratives about them, Big Energy is onto creating the next boogeyman: people who buy solar panels (myself recently included!). In the industry’s new fairy tale, solar enthusiasts are pampered, over-subsidized greedheads whose desire to do right by the environment and save money is consequently reimagined as a pernicious attempt to punish the poor through higher electricity rates. Summarizing this fantastical meme, the New York Times reports:


(As) tens of thousands of other residential and commercial customers switch to solar in California, the utilities not only lose valuable customers that help support the costs of the power grid but also have to pay them for the power they generate. Ultimately, the utilities say, the combination will lead to higher rate increases for everyone left on the traditional electric system.

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