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Monday, April 10th, 2017

Indiana House passes a bill designed to cripple the state’s growing rooftop solar industry

Author:     Samantha Page
Source:     Think Progress
Publication Date:     5 April 2017
 Link: Indiana House passes a bill designed to cripple the state’s growing rooftop solar industry
Stephan:   Just as I have predicted Red value states, whose populations have chosen Republican governance, with a few notable exceptions, like Texas, are seeing their solar industry crippled to protect carbon energy interests. This piece on Indiana is a follow up on one I did a few weeks back when I first saw signs of this trend. Here is the latest in that state. The net-net of this is that it is going to further exacerbate the Great Schism Trend because these Red value states are going to fall further and further behind as carbon comes to an end in other states and parts of the world.  

Rooftop solar in Indiana will take a big hit if the bill becomes law.
Credit: AP /Stephan Savoia

The Indiana House voted Tuesday for a bill that opponents say will cripple the state’s solar industry.

If enacted, the bill would reduce the amount solar power users are compensated for routing unused electricity back on the grid.

Over the next five years, utilities would reduce net metering — a policy that ensures homeowners are compensated for electricity they add to the grid from solar generation — before bottoming out in 2022. Solar owners will then be compensated at much-reduced level, roughly around the wholesale price for electricity. The bill would also put a legislative cap on the amount of non-utility solar in the state.

“The definite intent is to make sure that homeowners, schools, farmers, and small businesses are not going to be able to afford this in the future,” said Jodi Perras, who manages the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign in Indiana.

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