By Gary Zuckett, WV CAG Co-Director
Watching the steady progress of the governor’s ‘microgrid bill’ (HB 2014) promoting and wooing data centers to locate in our state begs the question, “Why is energy choice being offered exclusively to large data centers and not to other consumers or businesses?” Indeed, homeowners have been begging for this kind of energy freedom for years, yet the community solar bills introduced for the past three years have gone nowhere!
Community solar is a simple proposal that allows local residents, even if they don’t own their homes or have rooftops friendly to solar panels, to purchase electricity from a nearby solar installation. This gives everyone the opportunity to choose lower-cost solar over fossil-based electricity. Of course, the King Coal and fracked gas lobbies hate it, as it undercuts their profits and puts a stranglehold on our PSC.
So here’s a question you can pose to your delegate and senators; “If you supported energy choice for data centers, shouldn’t your constituents have that same opportunity through community solar?” Perhaps when they hear this enough times, the lightbulb in their brains will finally turn on!