Solar economy’s departure is damaging for Hispanics

By Brent Wilkes

Friday, April 15, 2016 | 2 a.m.

As president of the nation’s largest and oldest Hispanic organization, I pay close attention to issues — particularly economic opportunities — affecting the Hispanic community.

Hispanics, like so many others, are still feeling the effects of the Great Recession. But thankfully, rapidly growing industries such as clean energy are starting to shape to our economic future. With more than 200,000 jobs and a workforce that is nearly 20 percent Hispanic nationwide, the solar industry is just starting to give us a glimpse of what a clean-energy future in America will look like.

Unfortunately, the clean-energy industry has basically been shown the door in Nevada.

In December, while families were busy planning for the holidays, the Public Utilities Commission of Nevada effectively sent pink slips to thousands of Nevada workers by adopting new rates that worsened the economics for rooftop solar panel customers. Until then, Nevada was at the top of the nation for solar jobs per capita. In throwing cold water on the residential use of solar panels, the commission destroyed an industry that had created more than 8,000 jobs, triggered more than $500 million in private investment in 2014 alone, and helped thousands of Nevada families save money with solar on their roofs. For Nevada’s Hispanic families, and the 1 in 5 clean-energy workers in the state who are Hispanic, the decision was especially devastating.

Because most Hispanics live in sunny states such as Nevada, California and Arizona, they are well-positioned to benefit from the solar industry. Solar has proved to be a source of good middle-class jobs for the estimated 50,000 Hispanics who enter the nation’s workforce each month. Solar-installation firms, for example, pay an average wage of $20-24 per hour, while solar salespeople make between $30 and $60 per hour. As the industry grows, it will provide opportunities for Hispanics to move up and join the ranks of senior management. But because of the Public Utilities Commission, future opportunities as installers, sales representatives and executives in Nevada are gone.

For those who aren’t aware, the basic issue being decided was how homeowners who install solar panels on their homes would be reimbursed for the extra energy they provide to their utility. For a long time, Nevada consumers benefited from policies that allowed consumers who generate their own electricity from solar panels to sell that energy back to the utility for a fair credit against their energy bill. All Nevadans benefited from this arrangement, because entire neighborhoods were being powered by clean energy. Unfortunately, because solar creates competition and the potential for lost profits for the local utility, the utility sought new fees and charges on solar customers through the Public Utilities Commission.

Utilities want Hispanics to believe that solar is only for the wealthy. But study after study, including one commissioned by the PUC itself, has shown that solar consumers provide a net benefit to the grid, and therefore reduce everyone’s bills. Solar prices have also come down dramatically, making it economical for middle-income consumers. That’s why, in 2015, 65 percent of California solar installations were in ZIP codes with median household incomes below $65,000 a year.

Solar also reduces the need for dirty power plants, which are often built in black and Hispanic neighborhoods. When you consider that two-thirds of Hispanics breathe air in their own neighborhoods that fails to meet federal standards, the decision by the PUC is all the more devastating.

As they say, “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.” Unfortunately for Nevada Hispanics, the solar opportunities that Las Vegas created are leaving. That’s why the League of United Latin American Citizens has chosen to join the Bring Back Solar Alliance, which is fighting to overturn the Public Utilities Commission’s solar-rate hike. Neither the Hispanic community nor our country can afford to shut the door on good-paying solar jobs.

Brent Wilkes is the national executive director of the League of United Latin American Citizens.