Solar Energy Industry Opposed to Proposition 80

With the Special Election coming up next Tuesday, it's time to start looking at the latest crop of California ballot propositions.

I plan to vote No on Proposition 80, a bid to "re-regulate" the electricity industry. I'm not going to lay a libertarian argument on you, or talk about how much it irks me that Proposition 80 perpetuates the myth that electricity was ever deregulated in California. Instead, I want to point out the adverse effects the proposal would have on green energy.

This morning, we had a solar energy consultant over to analyze our rooftop in preparation for installing a photovoltaic system. It was he who let us know that solar and other green energy concerns consider Proposition 80 a threat to their future.

The California Solar Energy Industries Association has been very visible as an opponent of Proposition 80. They are one of the signers of the official argument against, arguing that consumers will no longer be able to directly choose a green energy supplier. Instead, we Bay Area consumers would have to rely on PG&E adopting clean energy production.

I have personal experience with the devastating effects of government meddling in the electricity market. When the so-called deregulation of electricity production in California was enacted, I immediately signed up for Green Mountain Energy, a company that has had no problem thriving in other states. Less than two years later, as an effect of the bizarre spot market rules (how could a system that forbade long-term wholesale contracts be construed to be a free market?), Green Mountain and all the other companies like it had decided they could no longer offer services to residential customers in California. Through an acquisition of their business I was assimilated as an Enron customer, then later re-assimilated as a PG&E customer. My option to buy green energy disappeared.

P.S. Don't forget to check out former California Senate candidate Allen Rice's analysis of the propositions:
"Allen Rice On The November 2005 Initiatives"