{"id":18091,"date":"2016-02-22T16:23:30","date_gmt":"2016-02-22T21:23:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=18091"},"modified":"2016-02-22T16:23:30","modified_gmt":"2016-02-22T21:23:30","slug":"warren-buffetts-quieter-quest-to-kill-solar-in-the-west","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=18091","title":{"rendered":"Warren Buffett&#8217;s Quieter Quest to Kill Solar in the West"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3 id=\"page-title\" class=\"page__title title\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.desmogblog.com\/2016\/02\/21\/warren-buffett-s-quieter-quest-kill-solar-west\" target=\"_blank\">Warren Buffett&#8217;s Quieter Quest to Kill Solar in the West<\/a><\/h3>\n<article class=\"node-10316 node node-blog node-promoted view-mode-full clearfix\">\n<header>\n<p class=\"submitted desktop-only\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.desmogblog.com\/sites\/beta.desmogblog.com\/files\/styles\/full_width_blog_image\/public\/blogimages\/Jim-Bridger-Coal-Plant-e1438114008749.jpeg?itok=tws-nPUi\" alt=\"\" width=\"670\" height=\"360\" \/><\/p>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"horizontal-social-bar horizontal-social-bar-top clearfix\">There are solar battles blazing all across the west right now, as utilities anchored to fossil fuel power plants strain to avoid the inevitable spread of solar across their areas of operation.<\/div>\n<div class=\"field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden\">\n<div class=\"field-items\">\n<div class=\"field-item even\">\n<p>Not a month goes by without a story of some assault on solar-friendly policies by utilities, or by the Utility Commissions that are often in their pocket.<\/p>\n<p>During the holidays at the end of 2015, it was\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/williampentland\/2015\/12\/23\/nevada-overhauls-net-metering-rules-despite-objections-from-distributed-solar-industry\/#8f021cc1897e\" target=\"_blank\">Nevada\u2019s utter dismembering of its net metering policy<\/a>. Nevada is\u2014or was\u2014one of 42 states that offered net metering, a program through which customers with solar arrays are compensated for the energy they produce on their rooftops or in small installations connected to the electric grid.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"caps\">NV<\/span>\u00a0Energy Inc. unleashed this full frontal attack on the program that\u2014in one quick vote of three unelected commissioners\u2014<a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/energyexchange\/2016\/02\/11\/good-policy-gone-bad-how-nevada-killed-jobs-and-clean-energy-competition\/\" target=\"_blank\">pulled the rug out from under 17,000 solar customers and eviscerated at least 8,000 solar jobs<\/a>. And the Public Utilities Commission of Nevada (<span class=\"caps\">PUCN<\/span>) was happy to\u00a0oblige.<\/p>\n<p>Nevada has the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.reviewjournal.com\/business\/report-nevada-leads-solar-jobs-capita\" target=\"_blank\">highest number of solar jobs per capita<\/a>\u00a0in the United States, but for how\u00a0long?<\/p>\n<p>As Nevada\u2019s\u00a0<span class=\"caps\">PUCN<\/span>\u00a0invited this \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/cleantechnica.com\/2016\/01\/18\/black-hole-forms-solar-net-metering-nevada\/\" target=\"_blank\">solar black hole<\/a>\u201d over one of the nation&#8217;s sunniest states, many pointed out how\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.greentechmedia.com\/articles\/read\/berkshire-hathaway-skeptical-about-distributed-energy\" target=\"_blank\"><span class=\"caps\">NV<\/span>\u00a0Energy fought tooth and nail against the successful net metering plan<\/a>, and ultimately secured its\u00a0demise.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"caps\">NV<\/span>\u00a0Energy, the state\u2019s largest utility, is a subsidiary of Warren Buffett\u2019s Berkshire Hathaway Energy.\u00a0This net metering battle was high profile.<\/p>\n<p>Many have pitched it as a\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/features\/2016-solar-power-buffett-vs-musk\/\" target=\"_blank\">Buffett versus Musk showdown<\/a>, as\u00a0<span class=\"caps\">NV<\/span>\u00a0Energy\u2019s demands would prove to cripple Solar City\u2019s business in the state, which was dependent on a consistent net metering\u00a0program.<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;click on the above link to read the rest of the article&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Warren Buffett&#8217;s Quieter Quest to Kill Solar in the West There are solar battles blazing all across the west right now, as utilities anchored to fossil fuel power plants strain to avoid the inevitable spread of solar across their areas of operation. Not a month goes by without a story of some assault on solar-friendly [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[12535,12537,5317,5096,12538,12536,1564,4431],"class_list":["post-18091","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-energy-2","tag-ben-jervey","tag-berkshire-hathaway-energy","tag-desmog-blog","tag-elon-musk","tag-nevada","tag-nv-energy","tag-solar-energy","tag-warren-buffett"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18091"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18091\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18092,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18091\/revisions\/18092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}