by Steve Thurston
Word of iSun’s bankruptcy filing is sad news for their employees whose jobs are in jeopardy. But the blame lies entirely with the Democrat/Progressive majority in the Vermont Legislature, who in 2009 agreed with VPIRG lobbyist James Moore that Vermont’s energy policies should include a Ponzi scheme that rewarded a handful of crony capitalists at the expense of Vermont’s ratepayers.
In passing a law that required utilities to pay solar panel owners 20 cents per KWh for their excess electricity when the same electricity would cost 4-6 cents if purchased wholesale from the ISO-NE grid operator or Hydro Quebec, the Legislature ignored the analysis of the Public Service Department that there would be little benefit to Vermont ratepayers for this costly program.
Advocates for much more cost effective conservation and efficiency programs were rebuffed by pro-renewable Vermont Natural Resources Council head Johanna Miller with the excuse that conservation and efficiency, “is not particularly that sexy” p. 177. This term came up again when I asked Rep. David Sharpe at a legislative breakfast in 2016 why Vermont was pursuing renewables when C and E were much more cost effective. “Because C and E is not sexy”, he said to my astonishment. I had no idea that sex appeal, rather than return on investment was the criteria for choosing carbon reducing energy policies.
But the die was cast for millions of ratepayer dollars to be invested in the solar Ponzi scheme. With the skids thoroughly greased, VPIRG lobbyist James Moore along with VPIRG board members took advantage of the laws Moore lobbied for and formed Sun Common, which a few years later he and co-owner Duane Petersen sold to iSUN (formerly Peck Electric) for $40 million. The Ponzi scheme had worked out well! Or so they thought.
Meanwhile, the legislature, without Republican support, continued to pass laws requiring increasing amounts of high-cost renewable energy.
Citing the economic risk for Vermonters, Governor Scott vetoed the 2020 Global Warming Solutions Act, and the 2023 Clean Heat Standard. but the supermajority Democrat/Progressive legislature overrode his vetoes and forced the bills into law, even as a key sponsor of these bills, Rep. Laura Sibilia admitted that they would have no effect on global warming, but were instead intended to mitigate the volatility of fossil fuel pricing. She should have been more concerned about the consequences of policies that allow certain players to reap windfalls only to have them be plunged into bankruptcy with disastrous effects on their employees, who bear no responsibility. I guess that type of volatility is acceptable to Rep. Sibilia.
In the current 2024 session the legislature passed a bill (H.289) requiring Vermont to have 100% renewable electricity by 2030, even though the Public Utility Commission warned that it could cost $1 billion over 10 years. Not a single Republican voted for this bill in either the House or the Senate. Governor Scott vetoed it just as he warned he would do.
A veto session will be held on June 17 to consider Governor Scott’s vetoes, which include H.289 and also the education funding bill which stands to increase property taxes by double digits for homesteads and more for all other property. Vermonters are hemorrhaging their lifeblood to satisfy the supermajority’s insatiable thirst for dominion over every aspect of their lives.
Now that the largest solar panel company in Vermont is on the verge of collapse, one might wonder if legislators will think twice about overriding the Governor’s veto of H.289. Does Vermont really want to spend upwards of $1 billion to see the state plastered with monstrous solar panel arrays, such as proposed for Addison, Bennington and Rutland counties, which in many cases will be owned by out of state interests reaping the benefits of Vermont’s generous subsidies?
We hear much about the transition to “net zero” emissions. It appears that the transition is more likely to result in “net zero” dollars in the rainy day fund of many hard working Vermonters who live paycheck to paycheck while they pay for the higher costs of mandated energy schemes.
But all is not lost. Every legislator is up for re-election in November. Do Vermonters want to see the legislature continue with its reckless and unsustainable policies, or will they vote for more balance? There are many Republicans running for seats currently occupied by Democrats and Progressives. Think of these Republicans as a tourniquet for the uncontrolled bleeding that Democrat policies are causing. Without first aid, the bloodletting will continue – as the final vote on the Clean Heat Standard’s rules will be taken by the newly elected legislature.
These rules are expected to increase the cost of heating fuel by no less than 70 cents per gallon, perhaps much more. We won’t know until after the election what the cost will be. Without more Republicans in the legislature this vote, and the Governor’s veto, will be in the hands of a super majority that will feel even more emboldened if returned to the Statehouse.
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Categories: Business, Commentary, Energy
remember, they always leave a paper trail/// f. b. i. where are you///////////
They r busy investigating right-to-life Catholics. Keep your priorities straight. Destroy democracy in order to preserve it and all that.
Funny thing, our representative is the spouse of the CEO of SunCommon I wonder how she feels about her votes now.
Remember this: (Factcheck.org October 2011) “President Obama exaggerated when defending his administration’s approval of a $535 million loan guarantee to Solyndra, a now-defunct solar company…
In the case of Solyndra, according to news reports, the company had drawn down all but about $8 million of its total loan allotment at the time that it announced it would file for bankruptcy. It’s not clear that taxpayers will get any of that money back. And while the Solyndra project was responsible for creating 3,000 construction jobs, according to the company, nearly 1,100 people lost their jobs when it announced it was shutting down operations at its solar plant.”
Or this: “SolarCity Corporation was a publicly traded company headquartered in Fremont, California that sold and installed solar energy generation systems as well as other related products and services to residential, commercial, and industrial customers. The company was founded on July 4, 2006, by Peter and Lyndon Rive, the cousins of SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk. Tesla acquired SolarCity in 2016, at a cost of approximately US$2.6 billion (equivalent to $3.3 billion in 2023) and reorganized its solar business into Tesla Energy.” “In April 2017, the chief policy officer of SolarCity, John Wellinghoff, left SolarCity. In June 2017, Lyndon Rive left SolarCity, and Peter Rive left shortly thereafter. By 2019, Tesla’s solar panel market share was falling, prompting the company to cut its sales force. Revenue from Tesla’s energy generation and storage operations from January to September 2019 fell 7% from a year earlier to $1.1 billion.”
And this: (SolarInsure.com) “The solar industry experienced exponential growth over the last decade as costs fell and favorable policies helped drive mass adoption.
However, 2023 has brought immense challenges, with higher interest rates, tighter financing, and adverse policy shifts in key states contributing to over 100 solar bankruptcies based on our industry data, a number unseen before in our almost 20 years in the solar sector.
California was particularly hard hit due to new net metering rules under NEM 3.0 that radically reduced system economics.
These adverse state policy impacts exacerbated financing shifts, triggering plummeting demand and an 80% decrease in rooftop solar installation volume. The California Solar & Storage Association reports that the fallout includes thousands of stalled projects, over 17,000 industry layoffs, and a wave of high-profile bankruptcies.
While stronger players demonstrate some resilience, impacted homeowners and solar employees face prolonged uncertainty. The outright collapse of many once fast-growing solar firms provides a sobering case study on the potential unintended consequences of incentive transitions.”
Fraud, money laundering, and free money EPA loans since 2009 – they’re still at it and we get to pay for all of it – one way or another. Hence, the carbon taxes and setting Vermont up for a complete economic imploding disaster. Awake yet?
Chum the waters with the right bait, the sharks will come… EB5 was the tip of the iceberg. That worked (at least people STILL have short memories)… up to the point of accountability.
We are like the whore of Babylon…and having a serious identity crisis about who we are on the most fundamental level.
Are we stooges and shills and marks and prey for the snakeoil salesmen and women?
Or do we consult our own source of good, right and justice?
Our government is out of control. Period.
What are we going to do about it?
Crickets (as long as you comply, you keep the system in place).
This is just the ‘end of the beginning’ of the unfortunate carnage being wrought upon us as free markets are, and have been, eliminated by crony capitalists and their legislative enablers.
What’s next? Electric vehicles and the infrastructure that supports them. The electric heat-pump and other ‘Clean Heat Standard’ hangers-on. And, hopefully, not our fossil fuel suppliers.
But the ‘biggy’, the gorillas, in the room, the healthcare and the public education systems, for certain, are next.
Just don’t let our misinformed, misdirected, misunderstanding managers – you know, our elected politicians, their appointees, and the lobbyists who have profited from this grift and mismanagement, say they were duped. They’d been warned for decades that this was coming.
Bankruptcy: ‘Gradually, then suddenly’.
Well-here we go again! Those Prog Libs sure do love those Ponzi schemes. I wonder if any of them ever suffer any consequences from the fall outs like this one. Of course, some of them seem to just “disappear” to places-somewhere.