Big Solar Throws Its Weight Around In Maine

Big solar worked to kill Maine solar energy bill; Fearful that the bill would threaten their business model, national companies took steps that helped LePage and Republicans, at the expense of local solar installers and their Democratic allies.

Tux Turkel, May 16, 2016 (Portland Press Herald)

“The Maine lawmakers who last month defeated a landmark bill that would have expanded solar energy had unusual allies: national companies that are the country’s largest installers of rooftop solar panels…[Sunrun Inc. and SolarCity] hired lobbyists to fight the bill, donated money to political action committees that benefit the bill’s opponents and used social media to push an alternative measure that created a smokescreen for the bill’s detractors…The Maine solar bill would have replaced net metering with an innovative but untested alternative credit system that was crafted by a coalition of local solar installers, top Democrats, the state’s public advocate, utility companies and the state’s clean-energy and conservation groups…But the national solar installers, committed to the net metering system, [fought Maine’s alternative proposal because] they were afraid it would catch on in other states where net metering is also under fire…” click here for more

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