New Report: Blocking the Sun

The battle over solar energy could use some sunlight. That’s why we just released Blocking the Sun, a new report that pulls back the veil on 12 utilities and fossil fuel groups that are working to undermine American solar energy. 

Solar power

Gideon Weissman

Former Policy Analyst, Frontier Group

About a month ago we published Lighting the Way, highlighting the states where good policies and plummeting prices have resulted in a solar energy boom. Today, these states are reducing the power plant emissions that represent the biggest chunk of America’s contribution to global warming.

If solar energy can continue its dramatic growth it promises to bring truly transformative emission reductions to America’s energy economy. However, not everyone wants this growth to continue: namely, the fossil fuel companies and electric utilities that have dominated the American energy system for generations. For these companies, solar energy is an insurgent that threatens to disrupt their long-held business models. For oil, coal and natural gas companies the prospect of free energy from the sun poses an existential threat. And many of the electric utilities that are used to making their money from control of the energy infrastructure are afraid of changing their businesses for a world in which their customers can generate their own energy right on their rooftops. Many entities representing both of these industries want to crush solar energy before it grows any further, and have undertaken extensive campaigns to achieve this aim.

In the face of solar energy’s wild popularity across the political spectrum, these efforts are often waged behind closed doors, or with dark money hidden from public view. The battle over solar energy could use some sunlight. That’s why we just released Blocking the Sun, a new report that pulls back the veil on 12 utilities and fossil fuel groups that are working to undermine American solar energy. We found that these groups are going to increasingly questionable lengths in their efforts. For example:

  • The Consumer Energy Alliance, a front group for the fossil fuel industry, submitted petition signatures for a rate hike that would have made it costlier to use solar panels. But when a reporter tracked down signers of the petition, he found that CEA had either tricked them into signing or simply made up their support.
  • Arizona Public Service, in its efforts to impose big charges on solar customers, has been accused of running dark money campaigns to elect hand-picked members of the Arizona Corporation Commission, which regulates Arizona utilities.
  • The Koch brothers provide extensive funding to Utah State University’s Political Economy Institute, which then publishes bad science about economic impacts of renewable energy. That bad science is then disseminated by anti-solar campaigns.

Despite these efforts to block the rise of solar power, solar energy continues to grow. The US solar market just passed 20 GW of total solar capacity, enough to power more than 4 million homes. But in some places, anti-solar efforts are working. Florida, the Sunshine State, has yet to see solar energy take off, in part because of the politicians kept in office by big utility contributions.

This report attempts to shine a light on some of the shadowy battles taking place across the country to slow solar energy’s growth. At stake is not just American access to clean, cheap electricity – but also America’s ability to ease its addiction to fossil fuels and to do its part to prevent the potentially catastrophic effects of a warming planet.

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Gideon Weissman

Former Policy Analyst, Frontier Group

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