Warren Buffett's NV Energy and the NVPUC Conspire to Destroy Rooftop Solar in Nevada - 2016

 

Warren Buffett's NV Energy and the NVPUC Conspire to Destroy Rooftop Solar in Nevada

In February 2016, I traveled from Los Angeles to my home state of Nevada. For the past three years, new hires in the rooftop solar industry have been an engine of job creation in the Golden State. Economists up and down California cite the solar industry for its 20,000 new jobs in 2015 alone. Those jobs went mostly to the young and able. Able to sell door to door; able to handle thorny customer service issues; able to mount rooftop solar panels.

As I traversed Interstate I-15 North from the Los Angeles Basin to the Mojave Desert, I anticipated that Nevada, the Silver State, would be keeping pace with California in New Energy production. Arizona, which is Nevada’s more populous neighbor to the east, had already killed rooftop solar in favor of “Clean Coal”, Nuclear and Natural Gas fired electrical production. Surely, the State of Nevada could do better than their troglodyte cousins who live across the dwindling stream of the Colorado River.

As I left Baker, California, I could not wait to see the Ivanpah Solar-Thermal Station, near Primm, Nevada. The Mojave is a large desert, so one must remember that the Ivanpah Valley is still within the borders of California. There, where developers thought that no one would notice, California’s Governor Gerry Brown had authorized the most destructive “green energy” plant in the country. Famous for the displacement and killing of many desert tortoises and the continued flash frying of countless birds, this ill-conceived power plant helps no one other than the old Google Corporation (Now “Alphabet” Soup) and its other ultra-rich investors.

With its three grandiose towers glowing brighter than the sun, Brightsource Energy’s solar folly in the desert is a defining boondoggle and tax-dodge for the rich and infamous. On my outbound trip, all three towers shone like molten pillars of salt. On my return trip, one tower was dark. If you pass that way, do not stare at the lighted towers. More than several seconds of exposure could damage your retinas. Along I-15 there are no solar-thermal warning signs, although there should be. The unearthly scenery at the power plant makes you feel like you are already in Las Vegas.

Several days later, while attending a rally for Bernie Sanders in Henderson, Nevada, I met a (former) crew from SolarCity, Las Vegas. They were campaigning hard for the public to realize that the Nevada Public Utilities Commission (PUC) had recently killed the rooftop solar industry in Nevada. It had also killed 550 SolarCity jobs in Nevada. Through the application of an onerous negative "net metering" structure, the PUC made it impossible for even industry leader Solar City to continue installing rooftop solar.

When one thinks of the West, they often think of sunny Southern California. We also recall that Southern Nevada and Southern Arizona are deserts. Almost anyone could tell you that those two states are “hot, dry and sunny” on most days. As with California, both Arizona and Nevada are perfect places for rooftop solar installations. For reasons of fear and conservative orthodoxy, Arizona killed rooftop solar several years ago.

So, what happened recently in Nevada? Why would the Nevada PUC nix the development of such a natural and benevolent power source? Look no further than NV Energy, the private utility that provides electrical power to 2.4 million of Nevada’s 2.8 million residents. On May 29, 2013, NV Energy announced its acquisition by MidAmerican Energy Holdings Company (now Berkshire Hathaway Energy). In other words, NV Energy is now a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway, Inc. whose chairperson and primary stockholder is billionaire Warren Buffett.

Apparently, Warren Buffett was still smarting from the ongoing decrease of coal shipments on his Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) Railroad. With coal in decline all over the country, Warren Buffett seized on solar as easy prey. The rooftop solar industry as we know it is less than a decade old. In a classic “Old Energy” vs. “New Energy” struggle, Old Energy won. “New energy be damned”, I picture Warren muttering under his breath. “Coal and natural gas are the energy stocks of the future”, he said to himself. Whether Warren Buffet lobbied directly or indirectly with the Nevada PUC, they got his message and destroyed the rooftop solar industry in the state.

Think about it. Once you have solar panels on your roof, with minimal cleaning and maintenance, you just sit inside your home and enjoy low cost energy produced by the sun. Under the Warren Buffett, Old Energy scheme, you will sit inside your home and pay for massive coal or gas-fired power plants hidden far out in the desert. Fossil fuel power plants require a steady stream of carbon stock, which in turn creates a steady stream of revenue for Berkshire Hathaway.

With Buffet’s monopoly control over electrical energy in Nevada, there was no contest. As expected, the PUC bet on what they believed was a long-term winner. If that winner created higher consumer costs, increases in global warming and more money for the billionaire class, so be it. Warren Buffet did not acquire his current wealth of $71 billion by playing nice. With his wan smile, the 85 year-old hustler might as well be telling all Nevada electrical consumers to “shove it where the sun doesn’t shine”. In their boldfaced destruction of the rooftop solar industry, that is what he and the Nevada PUC did.

If California and many other states can promote rooftop solar installations as the backbone of a new industry, why should Nevada kowtow to a billionaire and his cadre of wealthy stockholders? If Nevada were to allow a public referendum on the issue, rooftop solar would return to Nevada in a heartbeat. Pro solar advocates collected over 18,000 signatures during the recent Nevada Caucuses. Only days later, a political action committee (PAC) named "Citizens for Solar and Energy Fairness", designed to "advocate for, or oppose" net metering programs filed a legal challenge to the pro-solar referendum. In a recent statement to Politico, NV Energy admitted that it is "supporting" the new anti-solar PAC.

Residents of Nevada, it is time to put an end to this tomfoolery and allow a vote for Nevada to Bring Back Solar.

Email James McGillis

 

By James McGillis at 04:04 PM | Environment | Comments (0) | Link

If You Think That Politics Stink, Then Give Generously to Sewer PAC - 2012

 

If You Think That Politics Stink, Then Give Generously to Sewer PAC

It has been over four years since the 2007 Quantum Leap Celebration in Taos, New Mexico. Since that time, new energy has been available for those who wish to partake. Yet, with the current global face-off between Old Energy and new, change is stifled. Entitlement thinking among self-appointed elites leads to abuse of power. In the news, selfishness, fear mongering and greed are the current winning strategies.

The 2010 Supreme Court decision favoring “Citizens United” is a good example. Through that decision, the court allowed shadow groups an unlimited voice in federal elections. Without divulging their contributors, “Super PACs” may now accept and spend unlimited amounts of money. In August 2011, Mitt Romney said, “Corporations are people, my friend”. According to our Supreme Court, perhaps they are.

After taking “appropriate expenses”, Super PACs use the remainder to produce negative political ads. Most of that ad money will go to media corporations that are key Super PAC contributors. For the energy, entertainment and media moguls, it is a case of having your cake and eating it too.

As they say, “Negative ads work”. With so much to lose, Big Money quickly pledged tens of millions of dollars to Super PACs. The resulting Super PAC ads have created a negative aura around the Republican primaries. With their inevitable negativity, Super PAC ads are likely to determine the outcome of the Republican primary race.

During a recent TV news show, I heard someone say “Sewer PAC”. What a fitting moniker, I thought. After my recent miss in registering “ChristianTingle.com”, I quickly bought the URL http://sewerpac.com.

If corporations and billionaires need a place to flush their money down the toilet, I can now provide one. Rather than writing about new energy and the environment in 2012, I plan to sell out. So hold your breath against the stench and watch for further developments at SewerPAC.com.

SewerPAC.com is for sale. The minimum bid is a “billionaire’s bargain” at only $1.0 million.

Email James McGillis

 

By James McGillis at 10:53 PM | Current Events | Comments (0) | Link

When it Opposes New Energy, Old Energy is Powerless - 2008

When it Opposes New Energy, Old Energy is Powerless

"Memories of San Francisco"

 

Saturday, November 10, we arrived home after a week in San Francisco.  During that week, I spent more time in the Marriott Hotel and our room on the twenty-fifth floor than I did outside the building.  Even when I did venture out, the tall buildings all around often shaded my walks in the city.  Sunday afternoon, I reflected on how good it was to be home in LA, with the sun shining down upon me.  It was a glorious feeling. 

 

On Monday, just after midnight, while I was entering a sleep state, I had an experience like no other I have ever had.  The incident took place there, in my bed.  Although brief, my experience, which some would call a dream felt like a live event to me.  Lying on my back, all my senses were present, including full cognition… or so I thought.  An old friend was there, asking me if I wanted to help, or to give hope.  I was not sure which question he was asking, so I asked a question of him. 

 

As I asked my question, I knew that I would not be able to control where my being would take me.  During the moment that I was asking my question, I received an answer of pure love.  It was love that I was giving to All that Is.  The receiving of love, I then discovered, was contained in its giving.  With all that was happening, I almost missed that revelation. 

 

Just as I came to understand the meaning of unconditional, universal love, my being rocketed headfirst, and in freefall.  It was not that I traveled far, but I could see and feel a cylinder of light energy around me.  Almost immediately, my consciousness began to rise, telling me that this might be an earthquake, and that I should wake up, which I did.  As my temporal consciousness returned, I let out an audible moan, which brought me all the way back to the present moment. 

 

Nothing had changed.  The room was quiet and I had not awakened my partner with my unearthly yelp.  Next, when the dog next door starting to bark, I had an hour or so to contemplate what had just happened.  There was no way I could say that this was “just a dream”.  The energy infusion and concomitant feelings were far greater than anything I had ever felt before, either awake or asleep.  Lying there, I felt like asking, “What the heck was that?”.  Finally, I fell asleep and had a good night’s rest.

 

On Sunday, my thoughts returned to the energy-exchange incident I had experienced in bed the night before.  As I meditated on the subject, new thoughts and feelings came to me.  While I was both asking and answering my friend’s question, I had felt a complete release of everything I had ever held back in my life.  I opened up and gave my love to the entire universe.  Simultaneously, I received a spectrum of powerful new energies, all in that moment.  Ancient stories talk about individuals who experience a visitation from a “shaft of light”.  Because of our cultural bias towards biblical interpretations, we naturally assume that such a light comes from above, like a spotlight on the stage of life.  In my case, it did not.  I felt like I was inside a scanner, not much different from an open MRI machine.  During the giving and receiving of love that I had experienced, something in my core genetics had changed, or rearranged.

 

The signs are all around us, if we believe that we can see, hear or read them for what they are.  New energies, combining frequencies not previously activated, or new energies having no frequency at all coalesce around with those who are open to them.  What are these new energies and what do they “do”?  They, in connecting with our own ethereal access points do not do anything to us or for us.  The new energies may be nothing more than lines of communications (string & can-telephone style?) to the universe. 

 

Yes, we can access the universe, not merely one of its near-earth realms, where chaos often reigns.  Chaos in those near-earth dimensions works like a breeder reactor.  The more chaos and fear we, here on Earth, send out through our electromagnetheric transmitters (our brains), the more we receive chaotic or fragmented information back from these non-physical realms.  The volatility of energy dynamics in the near-earth realms occurs because of the intermingling of the two largest groups of non-physical beings gathering there.  One group is comprised of recently departed earthlings, many of whom have appeared there after traumatic or unplanned deaths.  The other major contingent of non-physical beings inhabiting the near-earth realms consists of “crystals”, defined as those who have never been on Earth before.  The two groups are so energetically dissimilar that their energies can conflict, cancel each other or combine into energies never before felt on Earth, hence the name,

“new energy”. 

 

If one can obtain a broad enough perspective, one can see order in chaos.  The apparent chaos created by the meeting of these anomalous energies can result in unpredicted forms of energy transferring between dimensions, possibly affecting some of us on Earth.  The types of energies we receive from the near-earth realms and from the universe at large are dependent on only one thing.  That “thing” is our point of attraction.  If we open ourselves up to the love and understanding that is available to each of us, we shall partake of new energies yet unimagined. 

 

 

If we take the road towards fear and recrimination, we shift our point of attraction and the new energies cannot connect with us.  If we hold hope in our hearts for only a moment, hope connects with love and thus creates a potential for new energy flow.  Since all energy seeks resolution, the flow may be dramatic, as it was for me or it may be so subtle as to make you doubt its existence.  If we allow doubt to enter our thoughts, we force another energy decision-point.  In that flux of continual change, conscious life becomes a series of decision points.  As each decision approaches, one can easily ignore hope and return to a default state of fear.  In that plane, fighting and "pushing against", which are prime characteristics of old energy, may rise again.  Because manifestation always trails intent, old energy ways may still be a a "grounding point" for many of us, throughout this lifetime. 

 

Go there.  Wallow in self pity that you must “use less energy”, as Chevron Corporation now shouts to us from almost every television station, national magazine and bus shelter in the country.  Chevron’s non-committal, scruffy-bearded spokes-model has his stigmata plastered across his face in white marking pen.  “Guilty, as charged”, we immediately agree.  Have we not all “wasted some energy” in our time?  Is it not now time to repent of our energy sins and to cleanse ourselves at the profit-pump?  Should we take as our new energy guide, an old energy company?  Should we trust an old energy company that recently recorded the most profitable quarter in its one hundred twenty-nine year history? 

 

If we personally were to use old energy to earn $7.9 billion during one quarter of a year, the guilt we might feel could imbalance us enough to run a series of thinly veiled “mia culpa” ads, as Chevron has unintentionally done.  Chevron's ad model looks like a high-class bum.  With the look of a Wall Street insider, should we identify with him?  In judging his questionable conversion to a supposed new energy ethic, might we heap further derision on his guilty soul? 

 

Regardless of whether we share his guilt or dispise him for his apparent former excesses, we have bought into the “fear of shortage” syndrome that keeps group consciousness panicked and ready to bolt.  All of this happens in a bumbled, yet powerful attempt at manipulation.  Chevron Man's disingenuous declaration, “I will use less energy” sounds like what we might hear right after he has admitted to being an “energy-aholic”.  The ads attempt to tell us that we are all complicit in wasting energy and thus we are all as guilty as their partially defaced spokesmodel appears to be. 

 

As the Wizard of Oz once said, “Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain”.  In Chevron’s advertising campaign, they put the man in front of the curtain, scribble all over his face, and then dare us to figure out where all of our money went.  On that day in the future when Chevron pledges ten percent of its bloated, windfall profits to new and sustainable energies, I will gladly support them in their quest to “save the world”.  Until that time, I entreat them to keep their sanctimonious, self-serving advertising campaign to themselves.  Hey there, Chevron Man, is that your self-mutilated, graffiti-scarred face staring out at me from my copy of The New Yorker?  Yes, I thought so.

 

Although old energy will attempt to manipulate both old and new energies, that is a corporate strategy that will no longer work.  Each attempt, as exemplified in the dippy Chevron ad series will only make the perpetrators look as manipulative as they really are.  The irony is that their, “You should feel bad so that we can feel good behind your back” advertising campaign shall have an effect exactly opposite of its nefarious intention.  Chevron’s copyrighted tag line is “Human Energy”, yet their ad campaign seeks to drain us of any such energy we may have retained.  Thank you, Chevron, for caring so deeply about “us”.

 

The lines of communications between love and fear are no longer open.  Now we must choose one or the other.  As Earth’s population approaches its carrying capacity of around ten billion physical souls, the price of entry here has gone up.  Because of our collective prayers and wishes, from this time on, only those who have something to contribute shall enter the Earth-realm as human beings. 

 

Does this mean that life will soon be perfect for all of Earth’s residents or that war will cease immediately?  I am sorry to say, “No, that is not true”.  If we combine statistics on the current "human recycling" rate with the low average age on Earth, it will take a while for the ner-do-wells and energy suckers to cycle out and be gone.  Meanwhile, each of us has a choice to make.  We can (here comes the cliché) remake ourselves as part of the solution or remain as part of the problem.

 

The epic struggle on Earth right now is not about gay marriage, animal rights, global warming, genocide or even the rise of stupidity in mass culture.  It is

about fear and hope.  Move towards fear and you will contribute to chaos on Earth.  Hope for a better day, or surpassing that, experience a better day and you will contribute more to the common good than you may know. 

 

The world is a beautiful place and experiencing its beauty first hand is the only way to go.  Get outside and feel the sunshine, or for that matter, the rain, wind or snow on your face.  Allow the power of nature to cleanse your soul, if only for a moment, for in that moment, you shall discover the power of universal love and new energies with which to enjoy it.

 

 

Email James McGillis 

Grand County, Utah Public Lands Plan Fails to Address Watershed Issues - 2014

Grand County, Utah Public Lands Plan Fails to Address Watershed Issues

According to a recent press release, the Grand County Council intends to hear comments on three alternative proposals for “long-term designations of public lands” in Grand County, Utah on April 23, 2014, with their “final” decision expected sometime after May 2, 2014.

Embedded in all three Grand County alternative plans are the Utah Recreational Land Exchange Act (URLEA) exchange parcels. All three Grand County proposed plans treat the URLEA as settled law. Despite its lack of legal acceptance, Grand County plans to use URLEA as the backbone for its own land use designations.

As specified in my written protests to BLM, articles here and at MoabGas.com, I strongly disagree with the proposed “reverse land swaps” in Grand County. I call it a reverse land swap whenever the Utah School and Institutional Land Trust (SITLA) will receive land and mineral rights within Grand County. Such transfer of Grand County BLM land to SITLA encourages fossil fuel exploitation in Grand County, all under the guise of a “Recreational Land Exchange”.

If the BLM and Grand County Council make their land use decisions based on URLEA’s current “Exchange Agreement”, I will consider that neither BLM nor the public had an opportunity to hear my voice. Before Grand County enshrines URLEA in its land use documents, BLM should share my written protests with the Grand County Council. Until my written protests are accepted or rejected, they are germane to Grand County’s long-term land use decisions.

On March 25, 2014, BLM closed its acceptance of written protests to URLEA. Before that date, I submitted two written protests to BLM. According to Ms. Joy Wehking of the BLM in Salt Lake City, mine were the only written protests received. The BLM protest period lasted forty-five days. On May 1, 2014, my written protests will be more than forty-five days old. A forty-five day protest period should also be the maximum time it takes BLM to answer my written protests. Fair for one is fair for all.

On April 15, 2014, I addressed Joy Wehking with my concerns about not receiving a reply from BLM regarding my written protests. This was her answer: “Because the decision for the Utah Recreational Land Exchange that you protested was signed by the BLM Utah State Director, your protest must be reviewed and responded to by the BLM's Washington Office. They have been provided with the relevant information and will be sending you a written response to your protest. As to when this may occur, I do not know".

From my previous articles, we know that the URLEA parcel exchange is flawed. For example, Parcel 32, adjacent to Canyonlands Field received a “grazing land” appraisal. Upon completion of the “reverse swap” conveyance, SITLA is on record with BLM that they plan to sell that parcel and its mineral rights to the private sector. If that happens, Moab visitors will likely find a petrochemical production and distribution facility intertwined with and dwarfing the Moab Airport.

The Grand County Council, which never saw a steer or an old energy extractionist that it does not like should start posting signs welcoming visitors to “Moab – The New Industrial Desert”.

For the past few years, Grand County resident Kiley Miller has kept her email contacts informed about assaults on the environment in Grand County. In her latest email (below), she lays out the stakes for all to see. The Grand County Council Public Lands Working Committee, recently proposed three alternatives for the future of public lands in Grand County. When the Grand County Council, loaded with “wild westers” appoints a committee to create land use plans, we can all expect the worst.

As Kiley miller said, “We expected bad, but this is far worse”.

Background: On April 9, 2014, the Grand County Council Public Lands Working Committee identified three alternatives, along with maps, for long-term designations of public lands in Grand County. A public meeting is scheduled for 6 pm Wednesday April 23, 2014 at the Grand Center to present the maps and to take public comments; the Grand County Council will accept written comments on the proposal until May 2, 2014.

Even the best alternative (Alternative #3) proposed by the Working Committee would roll back environmental protection in Grand County. Members of the County Council need to hear from you; the County must “GO BEYOND #3” and strenuously improve the Working Committee’s proposal.

All the alternatives ignored the public input that the county received. Of the 182 letters received by the Council from Grand County residents and business owners, nearly 90% favored strong wilderness and public lands protection.

And yet, the County’s best alternative (Alternative #3): Protects just over half (58%, or 484,446 acres) of the proposed wilderness in Grand County -- and then riddles that “protected wilderness” with ORV routes. The Working Committee decided that places like Porcupine Rim, Mary Jane Canyon, Fisher Towers, Goldbar Rim, the Dome Plateau, and most of Labyrinth, including Mineral, Hell Roaring, Spring, and Tenmile canyons, were unworthy of wilderness protection.
•  Would punch a hole through the heart of the Book Cliffs -- one of the largest remaining roadless areas in the lower 48 states -- to build a “Hydrocarbon Highway” for fossil fuels extraction. The county proposes a mile-wide “transportation corridor” (proposed as 2 miles wide in the other alternatives) to ship fossil fuels from the Uinta Basin and proposed tar sands mining in the Book Cliffs to dreamed-of refineries in Green River, or to the railway.
•  Leaves open to oil and gas drilling the entire view shed east of Arches National Park, including the world-famous view from Delicate Arch. The Working Committee rejected proposed wilderness areas east of Arches. This is the same area that caused a national uproar and sent Tim DeChristopher to prison when, in its the waning days, the George W. Bush Administration sold the famous 77 oil and gas leases. Under the county’s best proposal, leasing and drilling in that region may follow.
•  Allows oil and gas drilling and potash mining on the rim of Labyrinth Canyon (upstream from Spring Canyon). The lack of real protection in the greater Labyrinth Canyon area in all three proposals is a glaring and curious omission.
•  Supports continued off road vehicle abuse and offers zero concessions on ORV routes designated in the Bush-era BLM travel plan -- even though the planning of those routes likely failed to follow the law. The county would codify the BLM’s Bush-era route designations even though a federal judge recently set aside a nearly identical travel plan in the Richfield BLM office for failure to comply with legal mandates to protect archaeology, riparian areas and other natural resources. It is just a matter of time before the Court overturns the challenged Moab travel plan.
•  Fails to protect Moab’s watershed. There is no wilderness proposed for the La Sal Mountains on US Forest Service land. Destructive cattle grazing will continue.
•  Limits the use of the Antiquities Act in Grand County -- the same act that was used by three different Presidents to protect what is now Arches National Park.

Alternatives 1 & 2 are even worse. Both would impose a 2-mile wide transportation corridor for the Hydrocarbon Highway through the heart of the Book Cliffs. This is wide enough to build an entire city within the corridor. Alternatives 1 & 2 provide even less protection for Grand County’s proposed wilderness and less protection from oil & gas and potash development.

What you can do:

The Grand County Council needs to hear from you!
1. Please, call your council members at (435) 259-1342 and let them know they need to improve Alternative 3. This should be the beginning of the discussion in Grand County, not the end.
2. Attend the public meeting Wednesday, April 23rd at 6 pm at the Grand Center.
3. Send a letter to the Grand County Council before May 2nd:
Grand County Council
125 E Center Street
Moab, UT 84532

Also, send a copy of your letter to:
Mr. Fred Ferguson
Legislative Director, Rep. Rob Bishop
123 Cannon HOB
Washington, DC 20515

Thank you, Kiley Miller and the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA) for the above information.

Moab and Grand County, Utah now stand at a crossroad. On the old energy side of the road, sit the ranchers, miners and mineral extractors. On the new energy side of the road, sit outdoors people, environmentalists, botanists, photographers… and even a few Jeep owners, such as myself. If you care about the future of Moab, and are a “citizen” of this world, let the officials listed above know how you feel. Otherwise, do not be surprised when the industrial desert drowns out any serenity still present in Grand County, Utah.

Email James McGillis