The Utah Senate recently approved a bill that will drastically change how you and your household are charged for electricity. Unfortunately, it appears that the change will mean a significant increase in cost for electricity. The Sustainable Transportation and Energy Plan Act passed the Utah Senate by a vote of 20-7 and will now wait on action to be done by the State House.
This bill will effectively decrease the amount of energy solar users can use from their panels, and effects both residential and commercial customers. It also means Rocky Mountain Power can bypass going through the Public Service Commission to get approval to increase your electric bill.
Why did this bill pass if it’s going to increase everyone’s electric bill? The rationale behind it is that if Rocky Mountain Power can recoup more of the energy than those who are using solar panels, they’ll be able to put more money and effort into funding for cleaner energy and fuel. Potentially, that is true in the very, very long run, but as of now, it just seems like a way for Rocky Mountain Power to hike up the cost of electricity without having to go through the former proper channels to do so.
Rocky Mountain Power doesn’t just want to increase your bill to make more money, they are going to wipe out solar panel energy incentives completely. They could hike up the cost so high, that there wouldn’t be any real tax breaks or incentives to use solar energy. Battery technology will not evolve quick enough to combat what Rocky Mountain Power is doing to the solar industry in Utah.
A similar bill was passed in Nevada and it has wiped out the solar industry in our neighboring state. The very same thing could happen here and not only does that mean higher electricity bills, but it means that people will be out of jobs. Nevada’s solar industry left the state when a similar bill was passed, taking over a thousand jobs with them. This is another case of “the man” (Rocky Mountain Power) bringing us down. The rich have just gotten lot richer.
