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.
Opinion
News
Opinions:
Have a great day!
Yann
The ITC Talking Points. While the Solar Summit is going on in Arizona, the talk about the future of solar is coming back to the ITC. Across the board the response is that the ITC should be extended but we will survive if the ITC declines by the 4%. The industry is coming together on the need for the extension, which is a positive step in the right direction. More on this to come soon but I do want you to be more optimistic than 10-15% for the ITC extension.
Ignoring Solar and Storage. Virginia utility Dominion has ignored solar and storage for their planning process. This has spectators including large energy customers up in arms about the short sightedness for the solar purpose of trying to build more natural gas power. But if they were watching Indiana, even there the regulators have said no to new gas power.
Race In Oil Majors. The headline says it all. While Shell has been quite busy, as have the European IPPs, some shareholders are BP are wondering what the leadership is thinking. Part of the strategy is unknown to those of us outside of the boardroom but surely some analysis is going to the displacement of fuel based transportation and how to make up the customer erosion from those that go to electric vehicles. BP is likely to make some plays including the generation of the fuel that will fuel their customers’ future transportation. They’ve got the cash and have been here before.
Opinion
News
Opinions:
Have a great day!
Yann
The News You Need. It’s been a long time coming but it used to be hard to find solar news every day. These days, there are one of a few dozen presidential candidates talking about solar and climate change policy. There are also market changes happening in States across the Country. What used to be niche is now a newsletter that covers the mainstream topic of the day.
415PPM. For the first time in human history we’ve reached 415PPM. Solar has never been more relevant or important than right now.
Hiring In Coal Country. A serious question, how does the solar industry make a coordinated effort to grow and hire in coal country? What would it take and if you are hiring affected ex-coal workers, how do we get the word out?
PG&E Hostage Play. PG&E is spending $50million per month in bankruptcy and has a laundry list of legal troubles. Like any good utility, all trouble needs to be passed on to consumers and PG&E is taking ratepayers hostage until it gets what it wants, indemnity. It is also taking the entire Bay Area economy hostage at the same time. If it gets windy this summer in PG&E is saying they may shut off the power for millions of consumers as a ‘safety’ mechanism. Imagine the power getting shut off for 2-3 days in the San Francisco area? Complete nonsense and legislators need to act before the utility goes full Hans Gruber on us.
Case For Inslee? Interesting view from Vox’s Ezra Klein on the case for Jay Inslee.
Money For Renewables. Next time you worry about the cost of the ITC and policies that have a “cost”, point out this report from the IMF. Some will say that much of the dollar amount is from externalities and if they do, just let them know that solar has a side effect too, job creation.
Opinion
News
Opinions:
Have a great day!
Yann
Biden’s Climate Plan. Late last week it was released that the upcoming Biden climate plan had a side of compromise in it. This was not received kindly by party activists nor the Vice President’s energy advisor who refuted the claim. There is still a political concern that purple state voters, in States like Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, want moderate climate action, something they doesn’t scare their economic outlook. Biden, a political pragmatist, is looking to win the election before he governs and this leak was to test the blowback in my opinion.
Is This Mainstream? Climate policy plans are playing ping pong across presidential campaigns and it’s a central topic voters are judging their choices on how bold they want to be. Climate policy is also still considered to be expensive which is what generates pause amongst the voters and politicians. Clean air, clean water, clean energy and jobs are do well with voters but giving up on the other side, the economic side, is still a media narrative that scares them.
Keeping Your Credentials. The climate advisor for Biden, Heather Zichal, is a former aide to the Obama White House on Climate Change. She has also argued that the Reuters report is wrong. When Michael left the White House in 2013 she joined the board of Cheniere, which obviously doesn’t do much to help solve climate change or pollution in general. While profitable, this causes Biden to lose serious credibility with industry professionals that are interested in understanding who is giving him the kind of advise that will lead to the action many of us want. Biden has never been know to be moved by energy issues so I am particularly interested on the advisors around him.
Opinion
News
Opinions:
Have a great day!
Yann