http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/25592-solar-power-gets-hot-hot-hot
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Solar Power Gets Hot, Hot, Hot
Friday, 15 August 2014 10:50 By Emily Schwartz Greco and William A
Collins, OtherWords | Op-Ed
With so many homeowners and businesses making greener energy choices,
private utilities - along with big oil, gas, coal, and nuclear companies
- see the writing on the wall.
Unlike some other denizens of the fossil-fueled set, this gang isn’t
beating oil wells into solar panels, retiring nuclear reactors, or
embracing wind and geothermal power. Instead, these guys are trying to
coax lawmakers into rigging the rules against increasingly competitive
new energy alternatives.
You see, the bulwarks of conventional energy are good at math. And the
math is increasingly not in their favor.
Solar panels are growing so affordable, accessible, and popular that
sun-powered energy accounted for 74 percent of the nation’s new electric
generation capacity in the first three months of this year. Wind power
comprised another 20 percent, geothermal 1 percent, and natural gas plus
other sources accounted for the final 5 percent.
Coal didn’t even register.
OK, so that first-quarter surge was kind of an anomaly because it
included the inauguration of the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating
System, the world’s largest solar-concentrating power plant. Through a
vast array of seven-by-ten-foot mirrors located on federal land along
the California-Nevada border, this remarkable site produces enough
energy to power 140,000 homes. Another vast utility-scale project aptly
called “Genesis Solar” ramped up too.
But the U.S. solar industry did install a record amount of new capacity
in 2013. And once enough folks produce their own power on their rooftops
and utility-scale clean energy becomes commonplace, demand for the juice
generated by the dangerous and dirty oil, coal, gas, and nuclear
industries will fizzle.
Can you imagine the economy weaning itself off of fossil fuels by the
middle of this century? That’s what Denmark has officially pledged to do.
Besides, we all need to visualize this possibility. Unless most of
humanity transitions to a new way of life powered by climate solutions,
global warming could ultimately render the Earth uninhabitable.
Can you guess who is trying to manipulate legislation to squeeze a few
more years out of the dirty-energy status quo instead of helping make a
requisite green transition happen?
The American Legislative Exchange Council - a secretive national network
known as ALEC - is stalking state capitols for just this purpose. ALEC’s
lobbyists push a broad conservative agenda in statehouses through
templated bills they tweak for state lawmakers.
What are these bills calling for? In states like Arizona, Utah, and
Oklahoma, there are efforts to essentially tax homeowners who lease
solar panels. But mostly ALEC is aiming for something bigger: gutting
individual state “renewable portfolio standards.”
Those wonky-sounding regulations require utilities to provide a certain
percentage of power from renewable sources at some set point in the future.
Alternative-energy leader California, for example, has committed to
drawing a third of its juice from climate-friendly sources by 2020.
And who’s paying for this dirty work?
Edison Electric Institute (EEI), the trade association for the 70
percent of the U.S. utility industry controlled by private companies, is
behind it — according to the Center for Media and Democracy. It’s joined
in this legislative attack by coal giant Peabody Energy, ExxonMobil,
Shell, BP, Koch Industries and other big fossil-fueled interests.
It may be hard to believe, but so far, foes of systematically
encouraging renewable energy growth are losing. Badly. Even in Kansas.
That state’s GOP-controlled legislature refused to repeal its renewable
energy standard a few months ago in a 63-60 vote.
All 13 state-targeted efforts to chip away at or kill renewable energy
standards have failed so far this year. Not one state rolled back its
standards in 2013 either.
Who could have guessed that renewable energy would be so hard to foil?
Well, anyone who pays attention to all the jobs it generates.
The solar industry now employs at least 142,000 people in the United
States. Solar workers outnumber coal miners in this country. In Texas,
solar supports more jobs than ranching and California has more solar
workers than actors. Wind jobs are growing fast too. They hit a total of
80,000 last year.
Sorry, ALEC. Even the reddest states can’t ignore this rising tide of
green jobs.
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