Schwarzenegger Solar Energy Fiasco

All the “concern” about “climate change” is really just so much talk as evidenced by the way California’s Public Utilities Commission is jerking around people who had wanted to install solar electric systems for their homes.

For all the “talk” about encouraging solar power, and all the bluster and blather of “concern” about the environment, it’s all a sham.
You see, under Governor Schwarzenegger’s so called “Million Solar Roofs Plan”, people who invest in solar energy to save money and “save the environment” are eligible for a rebate of some sort to defray their costs. Sounds good on the surface.

But the Public Utilities Commission decided to charge folks with solar a different rate for the electricity they do use in order to comply with the legal provisions of the plan.

So people installing solar to save money could end up paying for lots of “peak time” power at much higher costs than all the people who didn’t care to “help out”.

Smart consumers ran the numbers and it just didn’t make sense financially to switch to solar, even after the rebates.

Having solar was supposed to save them money. But this short sighted political bungling just ended up penalizinig people for switching to solar.

We’re told “Embarassed state officials are scrambling to fix the problem.”

This is just more proof to me that so called political concern for the environment are just more empty political slogans for advancing political careers. There’s no real governmental will to change anything if those who respond in good faith get jerked around like this.

Image courtesy Jackie_az @ Flickr