Letter to the Editor: Why Mo. electric utilities have it out for solar

Dear editor,

With the solar industry in Missouri booming, creating more than 5,000 jobs and helping thousands of homeowners, businesses, schools and government buildings go solar, why would the solar industry be attacked by the electric utilities? Why would locking in your own electric rate be harmful to anyone else? Why would saving taxpayer money by schools going solar ever be attacked or told it’s a bad thing?

Is this not a free country we live in with free markets to choose?

There has been a lot of noise lately coming from Missouri’s electric utilities regarding solar power, most of it negative.

So far, solar doesn’t even account for one half of 1 percent of the total energy generated in Missouri, yet electric utilities – especially rural cooperatives – regularly rail against their customers owning solar.

It doesn’t seem to make sense. However, when you stop to consider the issue, the reason for utility opposition becomes very clear. It’s competition.

Missouri’s electric utilities hold a monopoly on the generation and sale of electricity. Now, with the dramatic drop in the cost of solar the past five years, thanks in part to a 30 percent federal tax credit that has just recently been extended for five years, solar has become an affordable option for many middle-class families.

This means for the first time, home and business owners are able to buy the equipment to generate their own power and sell the excess back to their utility. The end result is customers save a lot of money. Some can practically eliminate their electric bills.

For investor owned utilities such as Empire District Electric, Kansas City Power & Light and Ameren, the threat is obvious: reduced profits due to competition. However, it’s odd Missouri’s nonprofit electric cooperatives would complain, since they aren’t supposed to be profit-driven businesses.

In a recent article from their Rural Missouri magazine, Association of Missouri Electric Cooperatives President Barry Hart pontificated about how member-owners should be in favor of “affordable and reliable electricity, not subsidies.”

Considering how co-ops got started, Hart’s line is particularly hypocritical.

It was federal subsidies, specifically the Rural Electrification Act of 1936 that made their monopoly possible. Most co-ops continue to receive federal subsidies in the form of low interest government loans.

Now, they are criticizing such assistance for the solar industry, and it is clear their criticism is based in fear of free-market competition.

Whether it’s an investor-owned utility, a rural electric cooperative or a municipal utility, they all have the same agenda: keeping a tight rein on their monopoly of power. They want you buying power from them only, paying the rates they dictate.

Now that solar is actually an affordable option, utilities are crying foul by stating it is only for the wealthy and that the rest of their customers are “subsidizing” those few who can afford it.

What they’re not telling you is every electric customer connected to the grid has a fixed monthly customer charge on their bill that covers the cost of the utility doing business. This even applies to those with solar. So, even though their solar customers aren’t buying electricity, they still are paying the standard customer fee to remain connected to the grid, just like everyone else.

The irony is solar actually benefits all electric utility customers. Providing a cheap source of power generation, prolongs any investment in a new power plant, which costs $500 million to over $1 billion to construct. Such large investments are how utilities make their profits, and they’re also a huge driver of electric rates. Therefore, since utilities are losing out on a future profit opportunity because people are investing their own money in energy generation, solar is attacked.

Many electric utilities have invested in wind energy and some even in big solar farms. While this is definitely a step in the right direction, it is by no means a major source of their power generation. It’s also another way they control what you pay for power because all their renewable energy is marked up to try and convince ratepayers it’s too expensive.

The time has come for this monopoly of power to end. The time has come for ratepayers to have a choice about where and how they get their power. Even if you don’t have plans to install solar on your home or business, one can at least be in favor of free-market competition and customer choice.

Rest assured, the utilities will reach into their deep pockets and attempt to buy all the political influence they can in Jefferson City to guarantee that solar never sees the light of day. They will attempt to preserve their monopoly and eliminate customer choice. Don’t let them do it. Tell your legislators and your co-op board that you’re in favor of customer choice.

—Caleb Arthur, president of Missouri Solar Energy Industries Association