Fire Liability Established. Cal Fire has made the expected, official. PG&E equipment caused the deadly and tragic Camp Fires last year. The bankruptcy filing and much of the regulatory and legislative chess that brings us to today. PG&E shareholders need the indemnification and ratepayers need a monopoly that has access to a credit rating to contract for 20 plus years. You can not expect to build the utility of the future without the ability to backstop the most risky contracts. Legislators will have their hands full this summer. Again, what is the ask in the legislative process for the solar industry?
Fighting For Energy Demand. Engie, which not too long ago was a traditional coal owning IPP, now owns no fossil power plant and has quietly built one of the largest behind the meter energy savings companies. In a podcast you will hear next week, I talk with Engie Storage CCO about their work to monetize capacity. Yesterday, Engie NA acquired Genbright to match up with the Engie Storage business and get into DER monetization. Interesting moves for the French giant.
Looking for Potential Ratebase? Nevada passed a pilot bill that will allow schools to move to electric buses by letting the utility pay up to 75% of the cost. This subsidy is coming from existing charges and will not yield additional rate base. It would be interesting to see if utilities pursue this avenue for rate base. I can foresee quite the gold mine in this channel.
Sounds Good, False Premise. I’ll be blunt. The Bloomberg headline is crap. First of all, the ITC was extended in a deal to lift the oil embargo and Paul Ryan approved it in the House. Democrats never wanted to let the ITC die and definitely not with the bulk of the years focused on trade wars and a ridiculous 201 case that lost almost two years of momentum. We also didn’t have the IPCC report warning us that we need to get to 100% renewable energy ASAP. Bloomberg knows this and should report that facts. Oil and gas get the best subsidy of all, tax credits that can be invested in with active income. And those credits don’t expire.
If You Look At It Closely. David Roberts from Vox gives you his secret for passing climate legislation. You have to scroll all the way down to get to it.
- San Francisco Chronicle: PG&E caused Camp Fire, Cal Fire says
- Yahoo Finance: ENGIE North America Acquires Genbright
- ABC News: NV bills dealing with electric buses and trucks move forward
- Bloomberg: Democrats Try to Extend Wind, Solar Aid They Agreed to Let Die
- Vox: This one weird trick can help any state or city pass clean energy policy
- Greentech Media: Tesla’s New York Jobs Target On Track as Buffalo Factory Expands Beyond Solar
- Utility Dive: Florida approves TECO solar energy tariff, increasing access to green energy
- Axios: Department of Energy seeks to kickstart storage under new budget
Opinion
Have a great day!
Yann