One of the burning questions that follow the Left’s love affair with so-called green* innovation is, what about their love affair with taxes? EVs pay no gas taxes, and while they’ll get dinged with utility taxes, how do they replace the lost gas tax revenue?
The pat answer, rarely said out loud near an election, is to raise the vehicle registration fee. In Illinois, one Dem proposed making it $1000.00/ year. That seems a bit much, but you get the point. Mitigating CO2 (for no reason) shall not mitigate revenues. They will find their pound of flesh.
That problem, as applied to rooftop solar, has California Regulators approving new rules in the name of green and social justice (the green being money).
“…[R]ooftop solar customers aren’t paying their fair share into the rest of the energy grid, which many still rely on for power when the sun goes down. Power rates also include things like transmission equipment and wildfire prevention work, and regulators approve a set amount of money that utilities can recover from customers.”
“May still rely on power?” How about, please don’t charge the EVs we’re telling you to buy after sunset “reliance.”
Utilities and consumer groups have argued the incentive payments have unfairly favored wealthier consumers and harmed poor and low-income households.
According to the report, the approved plan reduces the rate paid for rooftop solar, which could cut payments by as much as 75%. The new rate would be at or near the wholesale price utilities pay to meet green* energy mandates in the open market. And while most EVs are owned by the top ten percent of wage earners, solar isn’t just a boutique item for guilt-ridden limo-libs. Some folks were tricked into a no-fi install with a 20-year lien on your residence (which might make it unsellable). They only got solar for the revenue incentives, and the State is clawing it back.
“I’m strongly opposed to the CPUC’s proposed changes that would make it more expensive for everyday people to put solar panels on their roof,” said caller Carol Weiss from Sunnyvale, “My husband and I are both retired and we would never have invested in rooftop solar under these proposed rules.”
What is the State’s response? They are telling homeowners to buy expensive backup batteries. Store your extra daytime power to use at night, or you can sell it to the grid after dark for significantly better rates. Instead of the $0.05 to $0.10 per kilowatt-hour, they could get from .040 to 1.00 per kilowatt-hour after hours. A green justice solution that only the well-off will be able to afford.
