Jean Wagenius sounded the alarm Sunday.
The North Star chapter of the Sierra Club sounded the alarm yesterday.
Sally Jo Sorensen and Dan Feidt sound the alarm again today.
ALEC's very own made man, Minnesota state representative Pat Garofalo, is behind an omnibus energy bill currently churning through the Minnesota legislature that's very similar to other bills being pushed by ALEC shills in state legislatures nationwide, as well as at the national level. And if that bill passes, residential solar will be all but destroyed.
Follow me past the cartouche for the deets.
Jean Wagenius is a longtime environmental advocate and state representative. When she says something is bad for us, it's bad for us.
From Jean Wagenius' blog:
Rep. Pat Garofalo has introduced his draft Omnibus Energy Bill. d0b80283-da3f-4839-baf9-551613c2b6d9.pdf Since he is Chair of the House Jobs Creation and Energy Affordability Committee, his bill is the Republican bill.
The Garofalo bill incorporates the energy-related ideas and bills that had been heard in his committee. Rep. Garofalo then found more bad ideas to include. This post would be much too long if it did more than scratch the surface. So it just covers the worst of the worst. Two of the worst of the worst were presented earlier in committee so there are earlier and more detailed posts about them. The earlier posts are noted below.
In summary, Rep. Garofalo’s bill would dismantle most of Minnesota’s efforts to promote renewable energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by repealing the laws that support these efforts. He totally sabotages solar.
In 62 pages he does a lot more, like proposing to make gifts to coal, the Koch brothers, and people wealthy enough to buy electric cars.
Before the worst of the worst, the back story needs to be told. The fight brewing in Minnesota is just one of many happening across the U.S. In an article entitled “Utilities wage campaign against rooftop solar,” the Washington Post reported on the campaign by utilities and its fossil-fuel supporters to stop residential solar. The Post says that legislation to make net metering illegal or more expensive has been introduced in legislatures in nearly two dozen states. The Los Angeles Times article, “Koch brothers, big utilities attack solar, green energy policies” links the effort against net metering to the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and the Koch brothers.
Here's what the
Sierra Club's North Star chapter had to say about the Garofalo bill:
On April 6th, the House Jobs and Affordable Energy Committee posted a final energy package that was radically different from the Senate’s Clean Energy Plan (SF 1431) passed two weeks earlier. Evaluating and reforming energy and climate policy is important, but the House proposal guts Minnesota’s successful, nationally recognized clean energy and climate policies. We believe that evaluation and reform should be done in an attempt to transition Minnesota’s energy system and economy from dirty fossil fuels to no carbon, renewable sources to improve air and water quality, reduce the impacts of climate change, create economic benefits and jobs for all Minnesotans, and to create a resilient, affordable, and reliable energy system and economy.
Poll after poll demonstrates this is what Minnesotans want to see. From Minnesota Power’s service territory,83% of those polled supported fundamentally changing the way we generate energy to maximize energy savings, wind and solar. Last summer, another statewide poll showed 70% of Minnesotans support requiring the state to achieve 50% of its electricity generation from renewables. The House Energy Omnibus achieves neither and moves Minnesota in the wrong direction.
Over at Bluestem Prairie, Sally Jo Sorensen follows up with
a posting of the Garofalo bill's final draft, so you can read it for yourself.
Dan Feidt over at Hong Pong elaborates on the danger posed by the Garofalo bill:
Nationwide the American Legislative Exchange Council politicians (ALEC - a corporate establishment coordinating body, essentially) are trying to kill decentralized rooftop solar panel systems and the policy apparatus that lets them trade extra electrons into the grid for cash.
National: see their scheme directly: Updating Net Metering Policies Resolution - ALEC - American Legislative Exchange Council
ALEC, climate change: A fight over rooftop solar panels could decide America’s energy future. (Sept 2014)
Utility Trade Group Funds ALEC Attack on Americans Using Solar | PR Watch (July 2014)
Now this plan is in Full Effect in Minnesota and at least on social media, almost everyone has been asleep at the switch (although this is changing).
The North Star chapter's provided
a handy way to contact your state legislators concerning the Garofalo omnibus energy bill. I urge you to use it. The future you save may be your own.
Out-of-state folks, you might want to snoop around and see what mischief your new batch of ALEC shills has planned for you. Forewarned is forearmed.