Over in the House - Delegate C William Frick is also trying to ambush the Governor as he was the House sponsor of the bill.
Governor Hogan is absolutely right - the Bill is a sunshine tax. But what is even worse - is that the 2015 Maryland Legislature has already passed HB 1087 - Community Solar Program. The electricity rate increases - as a result of passage of the Community Solar Program - are just now starting to kick-in.
Rate Increase No. 1 :
SB-921/HB-1106
Look at bottom of Page 6 in SB-921 - in the Fiscal Note - it says;
State Fiscal Effect:
Electricity Costs
'The incremental cost associated with the bill is absorbed by all electric customers in the State.'
Again, look in the middle of Page 10 in the Fiscal Note - it says;
'Small Business Effect: Small businesses incur higher electricity prices under the bill beginning in fiscal 2017.'
Rate Increase No. 2:
The prior year (2015) Governor Hogan signed into law the Community Solar Program - and this is going to effect every Marylander's electric bill as the surplus electricity costs are bore by the customers - and not the utility.
http://www.mgaleg.maryland.gov/2015RS/fnotes/bil_0007/hb1087.pdf
These electric rate increases are just starting to kick-in even though they were passed by the 2015 General Assembly and Governor Hogan.
Bottom line - if they override Governor Hogan's Veto - Marylanders are faced with a two tiered electric rate increases - the sunshine tax caused by 2016 SB-921/HB-1106 - and - the 2015 - Community Solar Program HB-1087/SB-481.
Senator Feldman and Delegate Frick tried unsuccessfully the year before during the 2015 General Assembly - with the same shenanigin's - SB 373/HB377.
Presently - the Public is unaware and are about to blind-sided!!!
20 comments:
As a conservative community I can't understand why we keep electing liberal democrats like Mathias. Hogan could accomplish much more if we would just help him out a little by electing some conservatives to the house and senate. Other states are turning red and we need to do the same.
Damn and double damn, we cannot afford the electric bill now and then get doubly slammed, nice just real nice. When is enough, enough?
leave it to our illustrious leaders to put the screws to us any time they can.
thankds sjd
"bore by the customers"
It's "borne" by the customers, as in carried.
Electricity rates are going to skyrocket because wind, solar, and biomass do not work.
Thanks Jim Mathias!!!
Let me see if I can clarify this even better.
Hogan was blindsided by these bills because they came about under O'Malley. Hogan simply did not understand these bills when he first took office.
We, (Salisbury News) were the only ones who made his staff aware what was about to happen.
In detail, simply put, solar panels are installed following a yearly rate of energy that you'd typically use, then they can DOUBLE the amount of panels. The additional 100% of the energy you might sell back to the power company is NOT applied as power they purchased back from their typical energy sources. It is instead an EXPENSE on their books and instead is a COST. Yeah, GO FIGURE. So in the end, guess what happens. Each and every home/business that does NOT have solar panels actually PAYS for the installed panels/energy. In the end you can expect, (this is a guesstimate) about a 400% increase in your power bills after this legislation, UNLESS YOU CHOOSE YOURSELF TO GO COMPLETELY OFF THE GRID.
Your Legislators have completely screwed you and they absolutely know it. Hogan's Office is diligently working and studying this as they were completely unaware. More to come...
10:39 - I think I understand the semantics - bore - or more like screwed!!
Either way, Marylanders do not need anymore bills, we need more expendable income. These electricity rate increase bills are nothing more than highway robbery.
Joe is absolutely correct. Maryland allows a person or business to install up solar to 200% of its use. For example: If you consume 10000 kilowatt hours per year - you are allowed to install 20000 kilowatt hours of solar. One can expect to receive a check in the amount of $1,400 or 10000 kWH x .14 = $1,400.
There lies the problem. Maryland allows the utility to expense the $1,400 as part of its cost structure - thus - it is treated on the expense side of the equation. So in essence - each utility's customer base suffers the penalty because the surplus electricity generated is expensed and spread out among the customer rate base.
The utility never loses, that is why they call them a monopoly. If they need new lineman's trucks, buy them and expense it to the rate base. Same goes with PU, cars, trenchers, transformers, etc.
I call it the Maryland Legislature's use of the Gypsy accounting method. No matter how you or I figure it - we always lose. They seem to always gain the upper hand in an underhanded manor, if you know what I mean.
Because Maryland is a liberal controlled state is why we are all doing so well.Go over to Delaware and they are in a terrible building boom with labor shortages.
Anybody notice the fee increases on their newest Comcast bill. To add insult to the increase, the fee increase is then taxed.
Solar only works because everyone else pays!
Talbot County installed a demonstration wind/solar project that cost $4.6 million and produces $23,000 worth of electricity per year. That's right, in 10 years the turbines will no longer work and by year 20 the solar panels will have ruined the land by leeching metals. What a scam, every $30,000 job cost taxpayers over $1million.
If I'm not mistaken, Baltimore Gas & Electric had the highest electricity rate increase ever recorded right here in Maryland. The rate increase was the largest ever recorded in excess of 70%.
If you think our senator is a liberal dem then you're clearly not paying attention. His platforms were exactly the same as the guy he defeated in 2010, who was a centrist republican.
Mining for, manufacturing and installation of solar panels, windmills, and tidal flow generators uses more crude oil than the "clean" energy they produce, so the carbon footprint for these follies is way over the top than just using the crude the old fashioned way. Reducing the voltage and amp requirements through micro electric technology has saved way more energy than any other tech advancement.
Imagine how many years your cellphone would stay charged on the amount of electricity an hour of watching a 1963 color TV used!
Nothing above is remotely accurate. This bill is not about net metering, it's about moderately increasing the use of clean energy in Maryland - by 5%. Highest possible bill impact during the year of greatest impact (2020) is an increase of 0.33% (1/3 of 1%) or about 58 cents for the average homeowner.
As for the discussion of net metering and solar, above, there is a concern of cross-subsidization but it doesn't at all work the way it was described above. Rather the concern is that net-metered rooftop solar homes may not be paying their fair share of grid maintenance costs, because they are utilizing the grid but may offset all of their bill from their rooftop panels. The other way solar is subsidized is through the use of Renewable Energy Credits in Maryland, which are very popular and widely supported by Marylanders.
Speaking of wide support, the RPS bill is supported by 71% of Marylanders. You may not like it, but this reflects the democratic will of the voters.
1:31 PM - your perception is distorted. Case-in-point - look at Delaware. When SRECS were first marketed - they were bringing $375 - $400 per SREC. Soon after - the utilities started building solar farms and the last time I heard the price of a Delaware SREC plummeted to less than $30. Same goes for Maryland - the price for Maryland's SRECS in Maryland started at $130 - look at them now - less than $18 per SREC.
http://www.srectrade.com/srec_markets/maryland
Hardly worth the effort to try and recoup ones cost. It's not worth the time to process the SREC paperwork.
With the lower SREC values, the cost can no longer be hidden and that is why it will skyrocket our electric bills.
The "sunshine tax" rate hike is only necessary because utilities refuse to stop investing in cash-cow fossil plants. If they had planned years ago for widespread renewables adoption, they would not have so many stranded assets that they feel entitled to earn a profit on in spite of the harm they do, and rates would actually get lower as more solar and wind came online.
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