Editor,
We are so grateful for Pat Costner, Faith and Michael Shah and all those who testified before the Arkansas Public Service Commission in support of clean energy by advocating the continuation of net metering for customers with solar panels who are part of the grid. Here is the comment we sent to the Public Service Commission (feel free to copy and send).
Please keep the net metering rate as it is: solar power generated at homes and small businesses and exported to the grid has the same value as the retail rate each utility charges its customers. Otherwise, growth of residential solar power in Arkansas will be severely hampered and we will continue our dependence on fossil fuels. Those using solar will not find it cost-effective over the lifetime warranty of materials.
Solar energy in Arkansas has great value – it reduces utility companies’ expenditures for new generation facilities, transmission and distribution lines and pollution control (e.g,. less herbicides used to maintain rights-of-way).
Don’t you want to encourage renewable energy in the Natural State?
Those who support the proposed “2-channel billing” change include Carroll Electric and the Arkansas Attorney General’s office, which describes customers with solar panels as a “burden” to other ratepayers. What an insult.
We applaud our neighbors who have gone solar! But with the 2-channel billing scheme, these folks will actually end up paying more than the rest of us, even though they are doing a lot to protect the environment for all of us!
It’s not too late to put in a public comment with the APSC. Go to www.arkansas.gov/psc and click on the public comment link; then scroll down to APSC #16-027R,
Nan Johnson and Dave Spencer