[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 20 (Wednesday, February 3, 2016)]
[Senate]
[Pages S532-S533]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              CLEAN ENERGY

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, in 1882 Thomas Edison invented the first 
electricity grid. He, of course, had done electricity before that, but 
he is virtually responsible for the modern-day electric grid. It was 
only 4 years later that George Westinghouse improved upon Edison's 
invention, and he gave us an electric grid that is almost identical to 
what we have today. That was 1882, and in 2016 we are doing it the same 
way we did back then. So the grid technology the utility companies rely 
on today is 130 years old.
  America's grid system makes money for utilities by generating 
electricity at central powerplants and delivering power to customers 
through power lines. That is because of George Westinghouse and Thomas 
Edison's programs. Costs for the infrastructure are paid by all 
customers based on how much power they consume, and the more 
electricity we use, the more we pay. This utility business model made 
sense for 130 years. It makes no sense anymore.
  Utilities never imagined that families and businesses would be able 
to generate their own electricity for a price cheaper than the utility 
powerplants. Utilities never considered that consumers would rather pay 
to make their homes more efficient than pay for power they don't need 
and don't want. Utilities didn't expect Americans would grow to believe 
that reducing climate-changing carbon pollution is a priority--and it 
is.
  The big power companies were wrong. Americans have embraced renewable 
energy and are investing in it more and more. I see it every time I go 
home. The roofs of homes and businesses throughout Nevada are dotted 
with solar panels. One can see them shining on the roofs. These houses, 
office buildings, and hotels are generating much of their own clean 
energy. It wasn't that way a decade ago. In 2005, only 7,000 American 
homes and businesses had their own renewable energy systems. That same 
year, after we passed the Energy Policy Act--one of its provisions 
encouraged States to adopt net metering provisions so that Americans 
would and could install renewable energy systems on their homes and 
businesses. That means a family with solar panels receives a credit 
from the utility for the clean power they generate. As a result, 43 
States now have net metering. These net metering policies have been an 
incredible success. Today more than 500,000 American families and 
businesses have their own renewable energy system.

  Less than 11 years ago, there were 7,000 solar installations in homes 
and businesses, today more than half a million. That is a 7,000-percent 
increase over 11 years ago. Producing cleaner energy at home is 
mainstream today. Yet, in spite of all of this progress, there are 
those who want to turn back time and take away Americans opportunity to 
generate their own clean, affordable energy.
  Why are they doing this? Because they don't want competition from 
families and businesses. They want to work the way they have for 130 
years. The Koch brothers and the fossil fuel pals have attacked our 
blossoming energy industry, the clean energy industry, at every turn. 
Any time we try to do something, they move in. They have

[[Page S533]]

done it in State legislatures all over the country. They are doing it 
today on this amendment that Senator King and I have worked on.
  They have turned loose their minions--their anti-consumer minions--
and they are now out working, being paid to do whatever they can to 
defeat whatever we are trying to accomplish. Utilities have joined with 
the Koch brothers. Utilities are cheerleading this anti-competitive 
measure that will cost families more money and take away their 
opportunity to generate clean energy at home.
  In Nevada, our utility proposed--and I say ``utility'' because 
basically 95 percent of all electricity in Nevada is owned by one 
company. This big utility proposed, and regulators recently agreed to 
slash, the value of rooftop solar for customers and imposed those 
changes retroactively. Can you imagine that? Contracts that had been 
let, they suddenly said: Well, too bad. We are going to retroactively 
punch you economically. The entire episode was detailed in a recent 
edition of the New York Times. ``Nevada's Solar Bait-and-Switch.''
  This could apply to Arizona. They are trying do the same thing there 
and other places in the country. I am not going to read the whole 
column, but I am going to read a few things:

       In late December, the state's Public Utilities Commission, 
     which regulates Nevada's energy market, announced a rate 
     change drastic enough to kill Nevada's booming rooftop solar 
     market and drive providers out of the state. Effective Jan. 
     1, the new tariffs will gradually increase until they triple 
     monthly fees that solar users pay to use the electric grid 
     and cut by three-quarters--

  Seventy-five percent--

     users' reimbursements for feeding electricity into [the 
     grid].

  They already have a contract. That does not matter. The column goes 
on to say:

       More startlingly, the commission made its decision 
     retroactive. That means that the 17,000 Nevada residents who 
     were lured into solar purchases by state-mandated one-time 
     rebates of up to $23,000 suddenly discovered that they were 
     victims of a bait-and-switch. They made the deals assume 
     that, allowing for inflation, their rates would stay constant 
     over their contracts' 20- to 30-year lifetimes; instead, they 
     face the prospect of paying much more for electricity than if 
     they had never made the change, even though they're 
     generating almost all of their electricity themselves.

  That is the power of utilities and Koch brother-like operations that 
are doing this. The Koch brothers are doing it through a number of 
billions of dollars that they have invested in controlling America 
through an organization called ALEC, which is a phony front to work in 
State legislatures.
  The utility in Nevada retroactively tore up the agreements that were 
made with families and businesses that generate their own clean energy, 
as indicated in this New York Times column. Because of what the utility 
did, at least three companies have left Nevada, and tens of thousands 
of families and businesses fear that their power bills will 
unexpectedly skyrocket because of the changes, and thousands and 
thousands of Nevadans have lost their jobs--not hundreds, thousands. No 
one knows the exact number but nearing 10,000.
  We should not be pulling the plug on clean energy at a time when more 
and more Americans are making it work. We should encourage 
independence. Competition is putting more clean power on our electric 
grid. We should support this growing solar industry, which is creating 
jobs. Solar alone created over 35,000 new jobs in 2015, a 20-percent 
growth rate. With what we did in the omnibus and the tax extenders at 
the end of the year, it is estimated that in the next 10 years there 
will be about 350,000 jobs in the solar industry.
  That is why Senator King and I have worked on amendment No. 3120, 
which would protect residential solar energy customers from the abuse 
that we have just talked about here and as outlined in the New York 
Times.
  This amendment is good for consumers in Nevada and across the 
country. It will safeguard people who want to generate their own clean 
energy from retroactive rule changes that could devastate their 
finances. Unfortunately, monopoly utilities and ideological groups 
funded by the Koch brothers are working hard to defeat any protections 
for Americans who generate their own clean energy. Remember, the Koch 
brothers use their money in a lot of different ways, not the least of 
which is in the fossil fuel business.
  These anti-competitive individuals are fighting our efforts to 
protect families and businesses from having their contracts torn up and 
having their bills skyrocket. My friend, the Senator from Maine is on 
the floor with me. I appreciate his advocacy. He has been at the 
forefront of this issue, a person who has extensive experience in this 
whole field, having been a Governor of the State of Maine when the 
power system there began to change.
  He is the sponsor of this amendment. I have joined with him on this 
amendment. He has been an unwavering advocate for solar energy 
customers. I hope our colleagues will follow his example and stand for 
consumers and support each American's choice to install clean energy on 
their homes and protect them from retroactive rate hikes and abusive 
fees.

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