If you’ve installed solar and you live within the monopoly of SRP then you know what kind of racket they are running over there. You spend tens of thousands of dollars to do your part on making Arizona’s electric grid more reliable. In turn, SRP hits you with these absurd “on-peak demand charges”. Make no mistake these charges are to intentionally make rooftop solar not affordable.
While the average SRP customer is paying around 10c per kWh of electricity they are spiking solar customers with rates as high as $33.59. This is nothing short of a scam. This means they spike the cost of electricity on their E27 customers by 33,490%. They do this to basically negate all the financial benefits of installing solar.
If you’re using Zipline for portfolio analysis you may be wondering how to get it installed in Google Colab which is running Ubuntu 18.04. Here are the commands.
This week has been an emotional one. We welcomed our new baby, Olivia, to the world on 3/1/22. It’s hard to not be extremely grateful, emotional, and realize how lucky we are when we see what is happening in Ukraine. Babies are being born in bomb shelters and thousands are evacuating Ukraine as I write this. I cannot fathom what it would be like to have our baby in a situation like what is occurring in Ukraine. We need to build a country that is not reliant on corporations and oil imports for the future sustainability of our country.
America has a problem with oil
America has a major issue regarding how much oil we import. In 2020 we imported 7.86 million barrels of oil. Think for a minute of all the major oil-exporting countries. How many of them do you believe are friendly to the United States?
Oil exporting countries
Saudi Arabia: US$113.7 billion (17.2% of exported crude oil)
Russia: $72.6 billion (11%)
Iraq: $50.8 billion (7.7%)
United States: $50.3 billion (7.6%)
United Arab Emirates: $47.9 billion (7.2%)
Canada: $47.6 billion (7.2%)
Kuwait: $28.3 billion (4.3%)
Nigeria: $25.2 billion (3.8%)
Kazakhstan: $23.7 billion (3.6%)
Norway: $22.7 billion (3.4%)
Angola: $20.2 billion (3.1%)
Brazil: $19.6 billion (3%)
United Kingdom: $16.1 billion (2.4%)
Oman: $15 billion (2.3%)
Mexico: $14.9 billion (2.2%)
Let’s start with Saudia Arabia. In 2018 they decided they would lure Jamal Khashoggi, a journalist for the Washington Post, into an Istanbul consulate and chop him to pieces. The most protected form of free speech should be given to our journalists.
The second on the list is Russia as we speak they are invading Ukraine. Killing and destroying everything in their way. The list of issues goes on…
Oil, energy, and SRP
Let’s get to what all this has to do with our future and the future for our children. There is only one way for the United States to diversify away from our oil imports, electric cars and solar. While solar and electric cars are not perfect they are the best chance we have at diversifying away from our oil imports and reliance on nations not friendly to our country. Note that I said diversify, not eliminate. I don’t think that’s rational as there are necessary use cases for oil that will always exist.
In order for solar to be sustainable, we need something called “net metering” essentially what this means is if you install solar on your house and overproduce electricity on a net annual basis you should only be charged for the net energy that you use (consumption – production). Unfortunately under the current leadership of David Rousseau and John Hoopes, and other corporate cronies this is not happening. They tout on their expensive mailer that they are solar-friendly and their opponents are bought by special interest groups. But one only has to look as far as the amount of money they are spending on their campaigns to know that they are backed by institutional donations. As America forges ahead with the democratization of electricity through rooftop solar installations they are exactly the type of politicians that get in the way. They push for centralized solar like the large-scale solar farms you see in the desert. These installations, while great for the environment, take all the financial benefit for the consumer and only benefit the corporations installing them.
I have 20kw of solar installed on my house. This provides about 100% of my electricity usage a year. Last year we installed solar on my parent’s house. Based on the current SRP plans and not recognizing net metering it kills the ROI for the average homeowner.
Trust Fund Kids and antiquated elections
SRP elections are antiquated and regressive. The more land you own the more votes you get. Yes, you read that right. The more land you own your elite vote suppresses all of the commoners. So if you visit the website of the existing SRP members you’ll see endorsements from trust fund kids who have inherited their money and political positions largely due to family inheritance and their religious connections. That is what allows these people to stay in power.
So as these two corporate shills would say “Keep your eye out” for your ballot this year. But be careful as there is more than meets the eye in the deception of their mailer. Let’s vote for a future for our kids. A future where electricity is decentralized and affordable through solar. Vote for the SRP Clean Energy team.
Randy Miller (Division 8 Association & District Board)
