SAN FRANCISCO — Berkshire’s NV Energy, the state’s dominant
utility, opposes the proposal to increase a cap on the amount of energy
that can be generated with solar panels by residents who sell power back
to the grid in a practice known as net metering. While the billionaire’s famed holding company has reaped tax credits from investing in wind farms and solar arrays,
net metering is often seen by utilities as a threat.
Buffett wants his
managers to protect competitive advantages, said Jeff Matthews, an
investor and author of books about Berkshire. “It always comes down to money,” he said. “It’s legal to lobby and
it’s legal to push your agenda, so he’s going to push his agenda even if
it looks kind of hypocritical.”
In an April presentation to investors, NV Energy laid out its
strategy for addressing the growth of home solar. The utility said it
would “lobby to hold the subsidized net-metering cap at current 3
percent of peak demand.”
The number of customers participating in the program in NV Energy’s
territory more than doubled in 2014. As more generate power at their
homes, the utility’s sales suffer. Jennifer Schuricht, a spokeswoman for NV Energy, said the company
“supports solar in all its forms.” She said the utility’s customers are
being served by 247 megawatts of solar, enough to power about 150,000
homes. Still, raising the net-metering cap “increases costs to all customers
and we oppose putting upward pressure on rates,” Schuricht said in an
e-mailed statement.
Solar Industry
Sellers of rooftop-solar panels are pushing Nevada legislators to
raise the cap, and one plan called for the ceiling to be lifted to 10
percent. Nevada State Senator Patricia Farley said she is proposing that
Nevada’s utility regulator study the issue before lawmakers act.
“Across the country the utility industry is pressuring regulators and
elected officials to limit solar energy’s growth, and the same thing is
happening in Nevada,” said Gabe Elsner, executive director of the
Energy & Policy Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based clean energy
think tank. “NV Energy is trying to protect its monopoly by squashing
competitors.” Utilities say they support solar power. Their objections to net
metering stem from the idea that customers who don’t have rooftop panels
subsidize those who do.
Lobbyist’s Ties
The conflict in Nevada has also raised questions from the solar
industry about influence-peddling. One of NV Energy’s lobbyists, Pete
Ernaut, was an adviser to Governor Brian Sandoval on two campaigns.
Sandoval has remained neutral on raising the net-metering cap.
The Republican governor is “a confidant of the big lobbyist on this,”
said Bryan Miller, vice president of public policy and power markets at
Sunrun, a San Francisco-based solar- leasing company. “Berkshire and
the governor could not be closer.” Mari St. Martin, a spokeswoman for Sandoval, said in an e- mail that
“there is no conflict between the governor and lobbyists from either
side.”
Ernaut “has been a lobbyist for NV Energy for more than 10 years,
before the governor was the governor,” said NV Energy’s Schuricht.
Berkshire bought the utility in 2013. E-mailed requests for comment to
Ernaut and to R&R Partners, a marketing firm where he’s president
for government and public affairs, weren’t immediately answered.
U.S. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat from Nevada, said
the state should raise its net-metering cap to allow for more rooftop
solar, the Las Vegas Sun reported on Thursday. Berkshire, based in Omaha, Nebraska, has become a major investor in renewable energy over the past decade.
Its utilities are among the largest generators of wind and solar power
in the U.S., and Buffett frequently points out those statistics in
public appearances and in his annual letters to shareholders. Last June, he spoke at an industry conference in Las Vegas and said
he was prepared to double his company’s commitment to renewable energy,
which at that time totaled some $15 billion.
Copyright 2015 Bloomberg
http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/articles/2015/05/hypocrite-while-buffett-champions-renewables-his-company-fights-rooftop-solar.html