Action alert!
Please call or write your Senators and urge them to vote yes on SB189 - Net Metering Energy Amendments. This bill passed the Senate Transportation, Public Utilities, Energy, and Technology Committee 4-2 and is scheduled to be heard on the Senate floor early this week.
The bill updates Utah's rooftop solar policy with fairer and more predictable credit rates for solar power that homeowners send to the grid.
You can look up your district and contact information for your representative here. The ask is for Senators only right now.
Tips for effective communication
As always, legislators respond best when we are respectful and appreciative, and when we are clear about what we are asking them to vote for or against. Include the bill number and title in the subject of the email. Put the ask in the first sentence, and include your address and contact information in your signature.
SB189 talking points
Supporting greater adoption of rooftop solar in Utah will make Utah’s electricity grid more reliable and resilient, especially when combined with on-site batteries and smart demand management.
Rooftop solar promotes energy independence, and policies that encourage using this homegrown resource to power our homes and businesses just make sense.
Rate complexity makes going solar a convoluted choice, and a nearly impossible option for low- and moderate-income customers, who may rely on financing to afford the upfront cost of solar. SB189 would make the solar credit fair, straightforward, and predictable.
Rocky Mountain Power only credits Utah solar owners around 5 cents for each kilowatt-hour they send to the grid. They sell it back to their other customers for twice as much.
You can see more on this in the action alerts from Utah Clean Energy and O2 Utah.
Another good bill - SB191 - Grid Enhancing Technologies
For constituents of the Senate Transportation, Public Utilities, Energy, and Technology Committee who already wrote to their Senators last week about SB189, the same Committee will be hearing Senator Blouin's SB191 tomorrow (2/12) at 2pm. Committee members are Senators Harper, Adams, Balderree, Ipson, Kwan, Millner, and Riebe. It would be great to write to them today and ask them to support this one too.
This bill establishes a grid enhancing technologies program to incentivize electric utilities in Utah to deploy technologies that increase transmission system capacity, efficiency, and reliability in already existing transmission corridors. Grid enhancing technologies can enable transmission lines to carry more current without replacing or building new lines. Today, transmission lines are only allowed to carry a maximum current reflective of the worst possible conditions. By adding sensing and monitoring those conditions, the lines can be operated much more aggressively without increasing risk.
Climate Utah legislative tracker
You can check the current status of all the bills we are following on our legislative tracker.
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