Dear Editor:
There is a simply awful bill working its way through our Missouri Legislature. HB340, a net-metering bill, would allow utilities to charge customers with solar panels 75 percent more for their monthly service. This is at a time when more than ever we should be supporting renewable energy.
The electric co-ops claim they are subsidizing solar users. Wrong. All customers on the grid pay a monthly service fee plus a usage fee. Solar users are paying the monthly service fee that every user pays. In addition, when solar users generate more energy than they can use it is shuttled onto the co-op's grid and owners are paid at the wholesale rate for that energy. Then, the co-op sells that energy to other customers at a retail rate making a profit off the solar user's excess energy.
HB340 is now being debated in the Missouri Senate. If it passes, this will decimate the solar industry in Missouri. Clear and simple, our legislators are picking winners and losers. Two other states that have similar bills have seen solar jobs disappear in their states. 3,200 solar jobs in Missouri would be lost with HB340.
Missouri experienced a 28 percent growth in solar jobs in 2016 in 134 solar companies with investment in solar exceeding $400 million. Solar power is projected to triple in Missouri in the next five years. The loss of state revenue from these lost jobs and companies would be in the tens of millions.
HB340 is picking winners and losers, is a job-killer, and it would cost the state many millions in lost revenue. More than anything else it is dragging us backwards in our replacement of fossil fuels with renewables. The co-ops wrote this bill to wreck the booming solar industry because obviously, they are losing ground on a level playing field.
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