Antinuclear

The Split in Right-wing Politics over Solar Energy

an intriguing clash of two strands of conservative thought – one that remains true to its ideology of individual rights against centralised control, and the other where ideology is cherry-picked and co-opted for the protection of vested and incumbent interests.

In Australia, the party divide between left and right over support for renewables has pretty much gone in lockstep with the US. Carbon pricing is opposed by conservative parties, and there is lukewarm support for renewables targets. Ultra conservative think tanks argue against them. But in Western Australia, a move by the conservative state government to tear up contracts written by its state-owned network operator Synergy, and slash the tariffs that it had agreed to pay 75,000 households, was met with a revolt by its own backbenchers and was reversed within days after an uproar from households.

How the far right developed an unlikely interest in solar energy, The Guardian, 13 Aug 13,  From the US to Australia, solar energy is increasingly supported as an individual right against centralised control – a headache for many conservatives   …….. Now, in the state of Georgia, there has been a dramatic split in conservative attitudes. The local branch of the Tea Party has aligned itself with solar interests and environmental NGOs to force the monopoly utility Georgia Power to open its network to more solar power. Ironically, it has little to do with the need to with climate goals. It is being fought – as Lorens suggests – as a property rights issue, pitting private citizens against utilities, regulators and fixed rates of return.

This push to elevate solar energy as an individual right is being carried by the new economic case for solar power: the plunging cost of solar modules – they have fallen 80% in the last four years – means households can install rooftop systems and lower their electricity bills. The emergence of these “prosumers” is challenging the revenue and the profit pool for network operators and fossil fuel generators.

Even analysts at major investment banks describe the proliferation of solar as unstoppable. The Edison Electric Institute, a trade group that represents most investor owned utilities in the US, says solar is a direct threat to the centralised utility model, and could cause “irreparable damages to revenues and growth prospects.”

This explains why lobby groups are dead set against the Georgia solar decision. Americans for Prosperity, which like the Tea Party have been nurtured and sponsored by the Koch brothers oil billionaires, is dismissing the Georgia faction as an aberration, or even more damming, as a “green Tea Party.” It has sought to turn the issue of rights on its head by arguing that rooftop solar will “infringe upon the territorial rights to the distribution grids” of the network operators.

It sets the stage for an intriguing clash of two strands of conservative thought – one that remains true to its ideology of individual rights against centralised control, and the other where ideology is cherry-picked and co-opted for the protection of vested and incumbent interests.

In Australia, the party divide between left and right over support for renewables has pretty much gone in lockstep with the US. Carbon pricing is opposed by conservative parties, and there is lukewarm support for renewables targets. Ultra conservative think tanks argue against them. But in Western Australia, a move by the conservative state government to tear up contracts written by its state-owned network operator Synergy, and slash the tariffs that it had agreed to pay 75,000 households, was met with a revolt by its own backbenchers and was reversed within days after an uproar from households…….. http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/aug/13/solar-panels-far-right

August 14, 2013 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Uncategorized