In support of net-metering (NEM) and rooftop solar in AZ (with facts!)

13 November 2013

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Commissioners,

I am - not by choice - unemployed. And I have had enough of well-funded organizations and well-dressed individuals talking about what is and is not “fair” for me, a non-solar APS customer. So I brought 3 packets with me today: one from you, one from APS and other groups, and one from customers like me.

The first is the ACC’s current Five Year Strategic Plan. And the first line of this first page gives the ACC’s primary mission statement, which is, and has been since 1912:

Exercise exclusive state regulatory authority over public service corporations in the public interest.

I emphasize “in the public interest”.

The second, findings from 5 different, independent studies on public interest (which I sent to you all), including one from APS itself in which 94% of ratepayers wanted an increase in the use of solar energy. Most ratepayers were willing to pay $6 more/month, and that across all income levels.

In fact, Arizonans ranked 6 priorities as more important than “keeping rates low”: renewable electricity (number 1), minimize air pollution, avoid outages on hot days, create jobs in Arizona, reduce radioactive waste, and reduce greenhouse gases.

The 4 other studies, all independent, all say similar, including one by SRP in which their customers are also willing to pay more, but only about twice the current APS LFCR.

The third packet is my own non-solar APS summer residential electric bill, and my solar-leasing friend’s. Similar-sized houses. On my bill, the “new” charge that brought about this discussion – the LFCR – was 11 cents. My solar-leasing friend’s: 17 cents.

So I challenge anyone to produce a public survey in which fewer than 9 in 10 ratepayers will pay for renewable energy what they can find under one sofa cushion. Until that study exists, and until a day comes when Arizona’s public interests oppose paying more for renewable development, the current policies should stand.

Fairness is letting We the People, of all income levels, pay the dime we want to pay for the energy we plan to consume in the state we choose to live.