Western lawmakers want utility credits for people with solar, wind power

More than two dozen states, from Washington and California to Rhode Island and Vermont, already have laws that allow some kind of "net metering."

But Rep. Jay Inslee, D-Wash., said the state laws vary and that a national law is needed to set uniform standards for connecting home generation units to a community electricity grid.

The inconsistent state laws discourage the mass development of new technologies for home power generation, he says.

"We think that by having a national standard this will really help this industry take off," Inslee said.

Solar panels are becoming more common on ranches and farms in Eastern Oregon and elsewhere in the West, as prices for many home power systems have dropped dramatically in the past five years.

About 100,000 homes in the United States have major solar-electric systems, and about 10,000 are totally powered by solar electricity, said Scott Sklar of the Solar Energy Industries Association.

Under Inslee's proposal, a home or business owner who generates solar or other alternative energy could ship excess juice to utilites during peak generation periods, such as on sunny days.

Then, when home and business owners need to use utility electricity during rainy days and nights, they would see a credit on their bills for the power previously shipped.

One of the bill co-sponsors, Rep. Roscoe Bartlett, R-Md., powers his remote cabin in the West Virginia mountains with a sophisticated system of 48 solar panels and some wind power generators.

"Most people will not have enough alternative energy to supply all of their needs, but they certainly will produce enough to run the meter backwards (and) significantly reduce their power costs," he said.

The Washington state legislature in 1998 approved a net metering program for all types of rate payers using solar, wind and hydropower energy.

The Oregon state legislature this year passed a net metering law similar to the Washington state plan.

Various utilities have differed on net metering proposals, with some opposing them.

Spokesmen in Washington, D.C., for the Edison Electric Institute, which represents investor-owned utilities, and the American Public Power Associaton, which represents municipally owned utilities, said they have not yet taken positions on Inslee's bill.

Inslee wants to push his bill on its own or attach it to utility deregulation legislation that some key lawmakers expect to push in coming weeks and months.

But time is running short - Congress hopes to adjourn for the year at the end of next month.

About half of the 25 co-sponsors of Inslee's bill are from the West, including Reps. Tom Udall, D-N.M., Jack Metcalf, R-Wash., and Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore.

archive