Tesla CEO As Part Of SolarCity Allies With Companies To Pressurize Lawmakers

SolarCity partners with solar companies to pressurize lawmakers for safeguarding favored-status energy policies

Tesla CEO’s company SolarCity joined an alliance to safeguard its interests. Worried regarding self-preservation and taking action in its best interest – instead of customers specifically, and US generally – solar companies have joined to protect their favored-status power policies and launch an attack on everyone who does not agree with their incentive-payment business model.

The most important is TASC – which was established and financed by solar panel installers SunRun and the California based company with participation by smaller renewable energy companies (in recent times, CEO Elon Musk’s company separated from TASC).

The lead lobbyists of two huge companies manage ‘The Alliance for Solar Choice’ (TASC) – both are obviously connected to the Democratic Party: John Stanton and Bryan Miller. In the past, Hawaii and Nevada have ended their NEM programs. TASC has given a response by filing lawsuits.

In Hawaii, case filed by TASC has previously been rejected with a report saying that that the US judge’s “ruling in favor of the Defendants has eviscerated TASC’s claims.” In 2015, Louisiana capped its “among the most generous in the country” solar tax credit. Arizona Public Service played the role of a trailblazer in amending generous renewable energy policies when, three years ago, a fixed charge was approved by Arizona Corporation Commission for renewable energy consumers.

The reoccurring idea behind the launched campaign is to develop a connection between the word “solar” and “kill” though the efforts made to do net-energy metering modification do not aim to eliminate the renewable energy. Rather, they intend to adjust the “incentive payments” to turn them into more equitable in nature, rooftop renewable power sector is not economical at its own.

Companies decline to play the game when it is not stacked to favor them. The Alliance is amongst many of those, which call the rooftop solar sector as a “coalition of rent seekers and welfare queens,” as the biggest conservative blog of the Louisiana- is making efforts to safeguard its preferential policies.

It can play other tricks as well. Apart from the specific alliances, third-party organizations such as the Energy and Policy Institute (EPI) are working to threaten academic and public officials. Supposedly, it can be an expansion of so-called Checks & Balances Project (CB&P), which is established to investigate policy makers and organizations that do not provide support to subsidies and government programs for renewable power.

In 2011, Elsner joined CB&P where he used to serve as a director and then left to set up EPI two years later, referred to as “a pro-clean energy website” by CB&P. The policy shielding procedure may look different from the ones used by any other industry as majority of those have advocacy groups and trade associations taking their cause ahead.

With possibility of political changes – remember that every solar supporter is leftist, big supporters of government, who are interested in higher power prices – the campaign for the power future of US is concerned with presidential election.