Tea party official rips We Energies' plan to alter solar charges
Solar advocates have enlisted conservatives in their bid to challenge proposals by We Energies and other state utilities that they say would restrict renewable energy development in Wisconsin.
Debbie Dooley is visiting Wisconsin this week in a trip sponsored by the Wisconsin Solar Electric Industries Association. She's a tea party activist from Georgia who sees energy freedom as something around which conservatives should rally.
"This is a referendum on free market conservatism," she said in an interview. "If you're a free-market conservative, you don't protect monopolies from competition, because the free market is all about competition."
Dooley, national coordinator with the Tea Party Patriots, became involved in energy issues while fighting plans by Georgia's main utility, Southern Co., to charge ratepayers for cost overruns it experienced while building new nuclear reactors. She became irked that utilities' profits rose even as construction costs increased from building big projects like massive power plants.
But a prominent group that supports Republicans in Wisconsin, Americans for Prosperity's Wisconsin chapter, this week came out in support of the utilities' rate plans.
"All should pay for their fair share of the electric grid," the group's state director, David Fladeboe, said in a memorandum. "As an organization dedicated to promoting and protecting free markets, Americans for Prosperity believes that individuals should have the ability to make decisions about their own property and energy systems but they should not expect others to pay for their choices.
"Yet, this type of cost shifting is exactly what some solar energy advocates are calling for with renewable policies such as net-metering. Some solar advocates are even suggesting that conservatives should support this kind of robbing-Peter-to-pay-Paul scheme. That kind of thinking should be rejected by anyone committed to free market principles."
We Energies said it's working in the interests of Wisconsin customers and against out-of-state solar companies. In a recent letter to lawmakers, Wisconsin Energy executive Bert Garvin said the utility's plan to end subsidies for customers that generate their own power is in the best interest of the state.
"Wisconsinites deserve an energy policy that is fair and makes sound economic sense for all customers," he wrote.
The changes the utility is seeking before the state Public Service Commission would tack on a new charge for solar-generating customers, pay them less for the energy they produce and ban companies like Sunvest Solar in Milwaukee or national solar companies from owning the panels on customers' roofs.
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Tea party official rips We Energies' plan to alter solar charges