Sunny Days Ahead
As we approach Summer, we also are preparing for the ramp up of legislative interim joint committee meetings, which will begin on Tuesday, June 1st. See full committee calendar here.
We anticipate several topics that are continuations of debates from the 2021 General Assembly, including discussions about new technologies such as Advanced Recycling, security of our energy infrastructure (which is often linked to the right to protest certain projects), and the evolution of laws regulating renewable energy. You can read more about these topics in KCC’s 2021 Legislative Review. If you are a current KCC member (and you have shared your mailing address), you should have received a copy of this year’s review in the mail a few weeks ago. If you are an email subscriber only, you can find this year’s KCC Legislative Review publication here.
There have been many positive developments this year already in Kentucky addressing clean energy and climate change. Going back six years ago, KCC, along with many other allies, had been in regular discussions with utilities, members of the Energy and Environment Cabinet and the legislature to advance solar energy. We spent two years in regular meetings with these parties to highlight specific points:
That solar energy is here to stay.
That despite the fact that utilities were only addressing the costs of incorporating solar energy, we and others argued that all of the parties were overlooking that solar energy actually includes significant benefits for utilities.
And that the impact of solar net metering to non-solar customers was negligible.
After these two years of meetings concluded (with little changing of minds from the utilities), KCC and other solar allies moved to a phase in 2017 challenging legislation that had been proposed to roll back the solar net metering laws established in 2004, pushing back for two years, when the legislature finally passed SB100 (2019 session) allowing utilities to consider new compensation for net-metered customers after the first rate case from any utility. That initial rate case, filed by Kentucky Power, has now been ruled on by the Kentucky Public Service Commission, a few weeks ago on May 14th.
While we still anticipate continued challenges, the ruling vindicated many of our original arguments. The PSC acknowledged that there were in fact multiple benefits that should be accounted for in distributed solar generation. And it confirmed that the utilities (in this case with Ky. Power) should include these benefits such as job creation and cost of carbon when considering rates.
Challenging a utility rate case before the PSC is a huge and expensive undertaking. Several of the environmental nonprofits in our coalition (working collectively under the umbrella of the Solar Advocacy Network) pooled their scarce resources to fund expert testimony (some of the exact same experts we utilized six years ago). Attorneys on our side included both nonprofit and commercial legal support. The specific intervenors within our network included Mountain Association, KFTC and the Kentucky Solar Energy Society represented by Tom FitzGerald of Ky. Resources Council; the Sierra Club and their attorney Matt Miller; and the Kentucky Solar Industries Association represented by Randy Strobo of Strobo Barkley PLLC (also KCC’s crack Legislative consultant!). All of these fine attorneys and their firms should be commended for a mountain of work that was reflected in the final 1000+ page order from the Public Service Commission.
The Kentucky Solar Energy Society will be hosting a webinar on June 3rd at 7PM ET to review the final order and what it means for you. Presenters will include Joshua Bills of Mountain Association, Tom FitzGerald of Kentucky Resources Council, and Andy McDonald of the Kentucky Solar Energy Society. You may register for the June 3rd webinar here.
In the meantime, while some of our fellow Solar Advocacy Network allies have been challenging rates, KCC has been focusing on the intersection of solar and our natural and agricultural lands. KCC has been tracking the more than two-dozen proposals for large-scale “merchant” solar power plants that have been proposed for Kentucky, with special attention to how these developments intersect with our land, continuing the discussion we initiated at our Annual Meeting this past January. Through this process, we have compiled citizen information on our website with resources on solar and lands, plus we are providing additional information through a free guidebook: “KCC’s Citizen’s Guide to Large Scale Merchant Solar” to share in your community. You may request copies of our Merchant Solar guidebook here. We are providing these as a public service in order to help educate citizens in areas where these projects are being proposed, or may happen in the future.
Citizens turn out at solar ordinance hearing in Clark County.
An example of why this dialogue is of particular interest to KCC played out this past week in Winchester, where hundreds of citizens turned out to express their views on how a proposed large solar installation could impact the sensitive farming lands of Clark County. Citizens there are currently debating how these solar operations work (or not) within their Comprehensive Plan through proposed ordinances that would outline rules for the coexistence of large solar and agriculture. While many citizens we spoke to this week expressed their support for solar energy, and the need to combat climate change, they also clearly expressed concerns about the process and the imperative to preserve high-quality farmland and their existing quality of life.
This is not the first time I have seen this kind of debate. I first experienced these same conflicts back in 2010, where I was involved in a heated debate while serving on the Sierra Club’s national board, on the very first large-scale concentrated solar thermal facility— Ivanpah, which was eventually built in the sensitive California/Nevada desert ecosystem. That experience reinforced important lessons for me: No matter how good the intent is, bad siting is still bad siting and clean power needs to be held to the same siting and community impact standards as we would ask of fossil power projects.
Since that time, I have also seen tremendous progress being made ways to build the clean power that is needed to combat climate change and do it responsibly. But we all need to set the right rules and create the community dialogue to make that happen.
More on making solar work in partnership with ecosystems:
KCC is also co-hosting the next meeting of the state’s Pollinator Stakeholder Group, where we will be bringing in experts who deal with the nexus between pollinators and solar projects. That meeting is scheduled for June 22nd from 8:30AM to 3PM ET. at the Kentucky State University Research Farm, 1525 Mills Lane in Frankfort. Anticipated guests include: Robin Ernst from Ernst Seeds and Monarch Vegetation Services (presenting via Zoom), Rob Davis from Fresh Energy (presenting via Zoom), and an in-person panel including Kenya Stump from the state Energy and Environment Cabinet, and Andy McDonald from Apogee Climate & Energy Transitions. If you are interested in attending the meeting, please contact us.