{"id":138,"date":"2014-04-29T12:57:34","date_gmt":"2014-04-29T16:57:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/designinglight.com\/?p=138"},"modified":"2014-04-29T12:57:34","modified_gmt":"2014-04-29T16:57:34","slug":"alec-on-the-wrong-side-of-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/designinglight.com\/?p=138","title":{"rendered":"ALEC On The Wrong Side Of History"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), with funding from fossil fuel producers and the utility industry, has turned its attention to renewable energy, and not in a good way. Their <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2013\/dec\/04\/alec-freerider-homeowners-assault-clean-energy\">latest push<\/a> is to levy a surcharge on homeowners who install solar panels and then feed electricity back into the grid when the panels generate more electricity than the home is using. The legislation has already passed in <a href=\"http:\/\/newsok.com\/oklahoma-house-passes-solar-surcharge-bill\/article\/3955378\">Oklahoma <\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.businessweek.com\/articles\/2013-11-22\/arizonas-new-fee-puts-a-dent-in-rooftop-solar-economics\">Arizona<\/a>. Known as net metering and required by 43 states, this practice reduces the homeowner\u2019s utility bill and the amount of energy that the utilities have to produce. A win-win, right? Wrong! Because by reducing the homeowner\u2019s bill it reduces the utility companies profits as outlined in a report by the Edison Electric Institute.<\/p>\n<p>ALEC claims that reduced utility company income will prevent them from maintaining the electricity distribution system, and if large-scale adoption of solar takes place we as a society may indeed have to reconsider the way that we finance the maintenance of the system. However, discouraging adoption of renewable energy is not the way to go. We absolutely need more renewable sources of electricity and less reliance on fossil fuels, as made clear by several reports that have been released recently. Consider the following:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The latest work by the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ipcc.ch\">Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change<\/a> (IPCC) says that climate scientists have high confidence in:\n<ul>\n<li>Risk of severe ill-health and disrupted livelihoods for large urban populations due to inland flooding in some regions.<\/li>\n<li>Systemic risks due to extreme weather events leading to breakdown of infrastructure networks and critical services such as electricity, water supply, and health and emergency services.<\/li>\n<li>Risk of food insecurity and the breakdown of food systems linked to warming, drought, flooding, and precipitation variability and extremes, particularly for poorer populations in urban and rural settings.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>The Carbon Tracker Initiative has <a href=\"http:\/\/www.carbontracker.org\/wastedcapital\">estimated<\/a> that 60% to 80% of the coal, oil, and gas reserves of publicly traded companies are \u201cunburnable\u201d if we are to limit global warming to a somewhat manageable 2\u00b0C, as opposed to the catastrophic 9\u00b0C that would result from inaction on climate change.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>The global concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere has reached 400 parts per million for the first time in recorded history, as reported by <a href=\"http:\/\/climate.nasa.gov\/400ppmquotes\/\">NASA<\/a>. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.esrl.noaa.gov\/gmd\/ccgg\/trends\/weekly.html\">According to NOAA<\/a>, CO2 levels measured at Mauna Loa, Hawaii have risen by 24% in just the past 56 years.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Clearly, protecting the profitability of utilities and fossil fuel companies shouldn\u2019t be a consideration. Nor should the economic impact of addressing climate change. The IPCC finds that the <a href=\"http:\/\/thinkprogress.org\/climate\/2014\/04\/13\/3426117\/climate-panel-avoiding-catastrophe-cheap\/\">cost of addressing climate<\/a> change would result in an average reduction in economic growth of a mere 0.06% for the rest of this century.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, the cost per watt of solar modules is dropping with breathtaking speed. In 1980 the cost per watt was over $16. In 2012 it was $1, just a few cents more than the upper cost for coal and natural gas. From 2011 to 2013 the cost of installed solar systems <a href=\"http:\/\/www.solarbuzz.com\/news\/recent-findings\/solar-pv-industry-transition-supply-driven-market-2014-according-npd-solarbuzz\">fell by 50%.<\/a> Projecting these downward curves forward it\u2019s easy to see that in just a few years solar is likely to be less expensive than fossil fuels.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, one of the biggest problems with renewables such as solar and wind is that they aren\u2019t consistent. This means that to increase our dependence on them we need a way to store energy when it\u2019s produced and retrieve it when it\u2019s needed. Fortunately, brilliant (pun intended) people are working on the storage issue. The latest promising technology uses a recently discovered material, grapheme, to produce rechargeable batteries that can hold at least twice as much energy as lithium ion batteries. You can read about these advancements in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/sustainable-business\/breakthrough-batteries-lithium-sulphur-graphene\">The Guardian<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.energyharvestingjournal.com\/articles\/researchers-develop-all-carbon-lithium-battery-00006484.asp\">Energy Harvesting Journal<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>So it seems to me that ALEC and its backers may win another victory or two before the tide sweeps them aside because they are on the wrong side of history. First, science tells us that we as a society must make changes, including a massive conversion to renewable energy. Second, technology is making the adoption of renewable energy possible with ever increasing speed. Third, economics tells us that we as individuals will soon be able to save money by installing solar panels on our homes because we\u2019ll be able to generate electricity cheaper than the utilities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), with funding from fossil fuel producers and the utility industry, has turned its attention to renewable energy, and not in a good way. Their latest push is to levy a surcharge on homeowners who install solar panels and then feed electricity back into the grid when the panels generate &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/designinglight.com\/?p=138\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">ALEC On The Wrong Side Of History<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[44,43],"class_list":["post-138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sustainability","tag-climate-change","tag-solar-energy"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4gZSw-2e","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":229,"url":"https:\/\/designinglight.com\/?p=229","url_meta":{"origin":138,"position":0},"title":"Renewables:  Responsible and Necessary","author":"Jason Livingston","date":"October 9, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"There are two interesting and related articles on the interwebs today. The first is an article at Climate Central and reprinted in Scientific American that summarizes a study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The study is titled Integrated Life-Cycle Assessment of Electricity Supply Scenarios Confirms Global\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Sustainability&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Sustainability","link":"https:\/\/designinglight.com\/?cat=4"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":619,"url":"https:\/\/designinglight.com\/?p=619","url_meta":{"origin":138,"position":1},"title":"San Francisco adopts law requiring solar panels on all new buildings","author":"Jason Livingston","date":"April 21, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"San Francisco\u00a0has this week passed landmark legislation requiring all new buildings under 10 storeys in height to be fitted with rooftop solar panels. The city\u2019s San Francisco Board of Supervisors unanimously passed the new rule on Tuesday, making the metropolis the largest in the US to mandate solar installations on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Codes&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Codes","link":"https:\/\/designinglight.com\/?cat=5"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":176,"url":"https:\/\/designinglight.com\/?p=176","url_meta":{"origin":138,"position":2},"title":"Now, the Good Climate News","author":"Jason Livingston","date":"June 26, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Ok, the headline is slightly misleading. There\u2019s no good news about the fact of climate change, but there is some good news about the politics and the technology for mitigating it. First, the politics where there are several encouraging developments. First, as I\u2019ve previously mentioned, Michael Bloomberg, Henry Paulson, and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Sustainability&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Sustainability","link":"https:\/\/designinglight.com\/?cat=4"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1811,"url":"https:\/\/designinglight.com\/?p=1811","url_meta":{"origin":138,"position":3},"title":"26 Consumer Groups Urge D.O.E. to Take Action on Lamps","author":"Jason Livingston","date":"June 30, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"You may recall that in 2019 the Trump administration blocked a rule intended to phase out incandescent lamps and encourage a conversation to more energy efficient models, namely LEDs. \u00a0If you don't remember the New York Times and NPR both had articles, among many others. Last week, the Consumer Federation\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Lamps&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Lamps","link":"https:\/\/designinglight.com\/?cat=13"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3804,"url":"https:\/\/designinglight.com\/?p=3804","url_meta":{"origin":138,"position":4},"title":"Fluorescent Phase-Out Continues","author":"Jason Livingston","date":"June 24, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"The big fluorescent news last week was that Minnesota has become the ninth state to pass a phase out of fluorescent lamps (the others are California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington). Minnesota's timeline is aggressive - screw-based compact fluorescent lamps will be banned from sale six\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Lamps&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Lamps","link":"https:\/\/designinglight.com\/?cat=13"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":481,"url":"https:\/\/designinglight.com\/?p=481","url_meta":{"origin":138,"position":5},"title":"Solar Energy: The Future Is Here &#8211; Plugged In &#8211; Scientific American Blog Network","author":"Jason Livingston","date":"August 24, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"For decades we have discussed solar as an energy of the future . But it's already changing the game. Source: Solar Energy: The Future Is Here - Plugged In - Scientific American Blog Network","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Sustainability&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Sustainability","link":"https:\/\/designinglight.com\/?cat=4"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/designinglight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/designinglight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/designinglight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/designinglight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/designinglight.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=138"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/designinglight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":139,"href":"https:\/\/designinglight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138\/revisions\/139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/designinglight.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/designinglight.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/designinglight.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}