In 2015, renewable energy sources (solar, wind and hydro) were up almost at 13.5 percent of the nation’s utility-scale electrical output. The U.S. Energy Information Agency had predicted renewals would grow 15 percent by 2035. In Bloomberg Business Week in January, Elon Musk, owner of Tesla Electric Cars, just shut down his Solar City Company in Nevada for now, because of the impact on NV Energy, Nevada’s Largest Utility Co. The Public Utility Commission in December changed net metering rates, which made it more expensive to go solar. Solar City with Sunrun Solar had installed 18,000 systems, most on a lease payment plan, in the last 10 years and now there is a class action suit against the utility commission. The solar owners and solar company employees are sure they will win. This whole event, “has enraged independent, free-market, and environmentally conscious Nevadans.”
On the home front the Forest Service is working with a Master Leasing Plan and with Southwest Resource Advisory Council, that is an oil and gas sub-group that intends to initiate community involvement in order to deal with key issues and concerns related to the leasing of federal lands for gas and oil exploration. Concerns here are numerous: Environmentalists all over the country are fighting gas and oil drilling and exploration, vying for more protection. Oil and gas companies are trying to stay afloat after being pummeled by low prices, with a long recovery on the horizon. Utility companies will be facing declining revenues and are having to fight to keep profits up in what looks like a useless battle against renewables. And the eventual winner will be solar, electric cars and the environment — that is until free energy and antigravity is allowed into the market place.
Bill Utrup
Cortez
