Why Not Ohio? Washington State FIT Bill Heard in Committee

[Rick Rowlands]

Thanks Dan.  And Dennis, actually read that article.

[Dan Moadus]

Sorry, here it is:  http://tinyurl.com/yf95c6l

[Rick Rowlands]

Dan, you forgot the link to that article.

[Dan Moadus]

Here is an article talking about how the so called "Green energy industries" are collapsing. It talks of all the abandoned wind turbines littering the landscape in Hawaii and California, rusting away and dripping fluids.

It is clear that as soon as the government subsidies stop, so does the interest in wind and solar power.

Hardly a day goes by that another news item doesn't appear detailing the total corruption of the "global warming" science, and most Americans are shocked at what they are learning about this hoax.

The article is a little long, but you won't be disappointed if you read through it. Below is an excerpt from it.

"Addressing a Heritage Foundation seminar last May, Dr. Gabriel Calzada, Professor of King Juan Carlos University in Madrid explained what Feed In Tariffs and other wind subsidies did to Spain."

"The feed-in tariff... would make (utility) companies go bankrupt eventually.  So...the government guarantees...to give back the money in the future -- when (they) are not going to be in the office any more.  Slowly the market does not want to have these securities that they are selling.  Right now there is a debt related to these renewable energies that nobody knows how it is going to be paid -- of 16 Billion Euros."

"At that point the whole pyramid collapsed.  They are firing thousands of people.  BP closed down the two largest solar production plants in Europe.  They are firing between 25,000 and 40,000 people...."

"What do we do with all this industry that we have been creating with subsidies that now is collapsing?  The bubble is too big.  We cannot continue pumping enough money.  ...The President of the Renewable Industry in Spain (wrote a column arguing that) ...the only way is finding other countries that will give taxpayers' money away to our industry to take it and continue maintaining these jobs."

If  "Irishbobcat" and Tim Ryan have their way, the next host country to be sucked dry will be ours.

[irishbobcat]

Why Not Ohio? Washington State FIT Bill Heard in Committee
 
According to a story written by  Paul Gipe last month, Washington State is the latest in the nation to introuduce a feed-in tariff bill in the state house.

Why Not Ohio?

An Act Creating Standard Offer Contracts was introduced into the Washington State House of Representatives January 5, 2010 and was heard by the Committee on Technology, Energy, and Communication on January 11th.

HB 2536 was introduced by Representatives John McCoy (D-38th), Maralyn Chase (D-32nd), and Jeff Morris (D-40th). McCoy is Chair of the Committee on Technology, Energy, and Communication. Chase is Vice Chair of the Committee on Environmental Health. And Morris is Speaker Pro Tempore.

The bill contains provisions reported previously, see Washington State House Committee Chair Outlines FIT Bill.

HB 2536, like many similar bills introduced across the US in the past two years seems focused solely on solar PV by severely limiting project size. HB 2536 limits project size to no more than 2 MW. Though the bill includes all renewable technologies, it is likely that no wind, geothermal, or biomass plants will be built under its overly restrictive provisions. Such provisions primarily benefit solar PV at the expense of other technologies.

Ontario has no limit on project size except for solar PV, which is limited to 10 MW. There are no project size limits in Germany. Spain limits project size to 50 MW.

Among its provisions, HB 2536 directs the Utilities and Transportation Commission (UTC) to calculate the average cost of generation plus a 10% rate of return from

Installed capital costs;
Fixed and variable operation and management expenses;
Fuel costs;
Cost of financing;
Land costs or leases;
Insurance;
Transmission and interconnection costs;
Net capacity factors; and
Estimated project life and projected generation degradation.
The bill also directs the UTC to set tariffs that are "reasonable and fair" to the generator, the ratepayer, and the utilities.

In a significant improvement over California's AB 1106 and Vermont's feed-in tariff program, chairman McCoy's bill creates separate tariffs for each of three size classes or "tiers"

<10 kW,
>10 kW<300 kW, and
>300 kW<2,000 kW.
California's AB 1106 sets one tier for projects from 1 MW to 5 MW. All projects less than 1 MW receive the 1 MW tariff. Recently passed SB 32 directs California's PUC to set tariffs based on the "value" of the electricity to the system for projects up to 5 MW.

The bill includes both investor-owned utilities and "consumer-owned utilities". The latter are typically Public Utility Districts in rural areas of the state. Rural utilities complained at the hearing that they would be unfairly burdened by the presumed cost of the program. Though HB 2536 spreads costs of the program across all ratepayer classes within a utility, there is no equalization or balancing provision among utilities as in Germany.

A workshop is scheduled to discuss this and other issues.

Again, why not Ohio? Why does Ohio not begin investigation into Feed-In Tariffs? Is it because Ted Strickland still believes heavyly in using dirty coal and Nuke options? It's starting to seem that way.