"Solar City left and took 550 jobs with them, and the total count will be 1,000," he said. Utah Clean Energy attorney Sofie Hayes said the problem with Adams' latest version of the bill is that it signals to the Public Service Commission that benefits of rooftop solar do not have to be accounted for when its members consider rate cases proposed by the utility company, putting net-metering customers at risk of being financially penalized.Ĭurtis said a similar measure was approved in Nevada at the end of 2015, and the result has been an exodus of solar jobs and industry from the state. "It is a way to monopolize solar," Curtis said.Ĭurtis was among those in a frenzy Friday at the Utah Capitol, peppering members of the Senate with pleas to hold the bill prior to the vote. Murphy added that the net-metering provisions in the bill simply deal with the case already before the Public Service Commission.īut Curtis said he fears the bill's practical effects are for Rocky Mountain Power to corner the market on solar power generation. "STEP will improve the air and add additional renewable energy without raising electricity rates." "Environmentalists should be cheering STEP instead of protesting it," he said. Rocky Mountain Power spokesman Paul Murphy said the bill's provisions have been "completely misconstrued." "It is a way to squash solar generation," said Curtis, who is chief executive officer of the locally owned company. The practical effect, said Kelly Curtis of South Jordan-based Solaroo, would be to kill any of the residential incentives to install rooftop solar and wipe out savings for existing customers. SB115, sponsored by Senate Majority Whip Stuart Adams, was amended Thursday afternoon to include a provision critics say allows Rocky Mountain Power to deal with its solar customers without taking rate cases to the Utah Public Service Commission. The massive Sustainable Transportation and Energy Plan Act passed the Utah Senate on a 20-7 vote Friday and now awaits action in the House. SALT LAKE CITY - Critics insist the latest version of what's been dubbed the "Rocky Mountain Power" bill at the Utah Legislature would mean lights out for any more rooftop solar development in the state and pull the plug on existing solar power generation.
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