Author Archives: GeoffreyBlaine

Arizona utility scores tiniest possible victory in war on solar

by GeoffreyBlaine Posted on November 15, 2013

Arizona utility scores tiniest possible victory in war on solar

By

David Crummey

Arizona Public Service Co. isn’t very happy that so many of its customers have solar panels. It wants to sell electricity to them, not the other way around. So it has been campaigning to convince regulators to impose new rules that would make it more expensive for customers to maintain solar arrays on their roofs.

Currently, under a net-metering program, the utility must buy excess power produced by customers’ rooftop solar panels. It’s been proposing that it should pay a lot less for that power — $50 to $100 less a month.

On Thursday, following two days of hearings, regulators at the Arizona Corporation Commission voted 3-t0-2 to reject the utility company’s bid. Instead, they imposed a fee on new net-metering customers that will work out to about $5 a month. Current net-metering customers are exempt from the new fee. 

Bloomberg reports:

Arizona is one of 43 states that require utilities to buy solar power from customers with rooftop solar systems. This lowers consumers’ monthly power bills and reduces revenue for the power companies. The decision at a hearing yesterday in Phoenix validates APS’s position that the arrangement is unfair because it shifts some of the costs of maintaining the grid to consumers who don’t have photovoltaic panels.

Arizona Public Service — and other electric utilities around the country — argue that solar-generating customers aren’t paying their fair share of upkeep for the power grid and other infrastructure.

Solar companies like SolarCity and Sunrun and environmental groups like the Sierra Club argue that imposing additional costs on solar-panel owners will slow the adoption of renewable energy. 

For now, Arizona Public Service scored only a small victory. Solar supporters aren’t happy about the fee increase, but they’re breathing a sigh of relief that it wasn’t 10 times bigger.

“The commission’s decision was being watched by utilities nationwide,” reports the Associated Press. “Utilities in other states have been pushing similar arguments and seeking the same sorts of rate increases.”

You can be sure debate over this issue will continue to rage across the country.


Source
Arizona Regulators Impose Power-Grid Fees for Solar Roofs, Bloomberg

John Upton is a science fan and green news boffin who tweets, posts articles to Facebook, and blogs about ecology. He welcomes reader questions, tips, and incoherent rants: johnupton@gmail.com.

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Arizona utility scores tiniest possible victory in war on solar

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Bonds Backed by Solar Power Payments Get Nod

by GeoffreyBlaine Posted on November 14, 2013

green4us

Be the Pack Leader – Cesar Millan & Melissa Jo Peltier

Bestselling author Cesar Millan takes his principles of dog psychology a step further, showing you how to develop the calm-assertive energy of a successful pack leader and use it to improve your dog’s life–and your own. Filled with practical tips and techniques as well as real-life success stories from his clients (including the Grogan family, owners of Marl […]

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Codex: Inquisition – Games Workshop

The Inquisition is the most powerful organisation within the Imperium. Bound by no Imperial law or authority, its agents – Inquisitors – operate in a highly secretive manner and answer only to themselves. Inquisitors use whatever means are necessary in order to safeguard the Imperium from heretics, mutants and aliens. It is not without good reason that Inqui […]

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Duct Tape Your Heart Out! – Leisure Arts & Patti Wallenfang

With today’s colorful duct tape and the fun projects in this book, you can craft to your heart’s content! Dress up school stuff and rain gear, make hip headphones and a purse or wallet, give new life to old shoes, bend covered coax cable into wall art words, and create unique jewelry to share with friends. These ideas are irresistible! Step-by-step photos an […]

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Warlords of the Dark Millennium: Fabius Bile – Games Workshop

Having once fought alongside the Chaos Space Marines of the Emperor’s Children, Fabius Bile is now a renegade even from his own Legion. A foul experimenter, he possesses dark knowledge of alchemy and genetic manipulation, and leaves a trail of sinister abominations in his wake. About This Series: The galaxy burns with the fires of countless wars a […]

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Codex: Inquisition (eBook Edition) – Games Workshop

The Inquisition is the most powerful organisation within the Imperium. Bound by no Imperial law or authority, its agents – Inquisitors – operate in a highly secretive manner and answer only to themselves. Inquisitors use whatever means are necessary in order to safeguard the Imperium from heretics, mutants and aliens. It is not without good reason that Inqui […]

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Codex: Adepta Sororitas – Games Workshop

The Adepta Sororitas, also known as the Sisters of Battle, are an elite sisterhood of warriors raised from infancy to adore the Emperor of Mankind. Their fanatical devotion and unwavering purity is a bulwark against corruption, heresy and alien attack, and once battle has been joined they will stop at nothing until their enemies are utterly crushed In this b […]

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The Art of Raising a Puppy (Revised Edition) – Monks of New Skete

For more than thirty years the Monks of New Skete have been among America’s most trusted authorities on dog training, canine behavior, and the animal/human bond. In their two now-classic bestsellers, How to be Your Dog’s Best Friend and The Art of Raising a Puppy, the Monks draw on their experience as long-time breeders of German shepherds and as t […]

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Inside of a Dog – Alexandra Horowitz

The bestselling book that asks what dogs know and how they think, now in paperback. The answers will surprise and delight you as Alexandra Horowitz, a cognitive scientist, explains how dogs perceive their daily worlds, each other, and that other quirky animal, the human. Horowitz introduces the reader to dogs’ perceptual and cognitive abilities and then draw […]

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How to Raise the Perfect Dog – Cesar Millan & Melissa Jo Peltier

From the bestselling author and star of National Geographic Channel’s Dog Whisperer , the only resource you’ll need for raising a happy, healthy dog. For the millions of people every year who consider bringing a puppy into their lives–as well as those who have already brought a dog home–Cesar Millan, the preeminent dog behavior expert, says, “Yes, […]

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Trident K9 Warriors – Michael Ritland & Gary Brozek

As Seen on “60 Minutes”! As a Navy SEAL during a combat deployment in Iraq, Mike Ritland saw a military working dog in action and instantly knew he’d found his true calling. Ritland started his own company training and supplying dogs for the SEAL teams, U.S. Government, and Department of Defense. He knew that fewer than 1 percent of […]

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Bonds Backed by Solar Power Payments Get Nod

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Why Are We Talking About the Debt Ceiling Crisis As If It’s Normal Politics?

by GeoffreyBlaine Posted on October 8, 2013

Mother Jones

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I was noodling over Obama’s debt ceiling press conference during lunch, and the thing that struck me—again—was how hard it is to truly communicate his postion. And I sympathize. I’ve written about the basics of the debt ceiling hostage crisis at least a dozen times, and I still don’t feel like I’ve ever been able to get across just how radical the whole thing is.

Except for Newt Gingrich in 1995, no one has ever shut down the government as a threat to get something they want. And except for John Boehner in 2011, nobody has ever threatened to breach the debt ceiling as a threat to get something they want. That’s because it’s basically nuclear chicken, threatening to destroy the economy unless you get your way. It’s unthinkable.

And yet, it’s now become so institutionalized that Republicans can repeat over and over their mantra that “President Obama refuses to negotiate,” and eventually it starts to get some traction. Reporters who should know better write columns suggesting that Obama should try to bargain his way out of this. Conservative pundits complain not about the hostage taking itself, but about the fact that Republicans should be sure to choose the superior—i.e., most damaging— hostage-taking opportunity available. And Obama is forced to take the stage and try out an extended series of metaphors to explain exactly what’s going on. And then we all sit around and analyze his speech and nitpick his metaphors and game out how this might end.

It’s crazy. How do you get across how insurrectionary this is? Raising the debt ceiling isn’t a concession from Republicans that deserves a corresponding concession from Democrats. It’s the financial equivalent of a nuclear bomb: both sides will go up in smoke if it’s triggered. Ditto for the government shutdown. And ditto again for the piecemeal spending bills, which are basically a way for Republicans to fund only the parts of government they like but not anything else.

You can’t govern a country this way. You can’t allow a minority party to make relentless demands not through the political system, but by threatening Armageddon if they don’t get what they want. It’s not what the Constitution intended; it’s not something any president could countenance; and it’s reckless almost beyond imagining.

And most important of all, it’s not something that should get written about as if it’s just a modest escalation of normal political disagreements. It’s not normal. At all. But how do you get this across? How do you get across just how non-normal it is that we’re even talking about it?

Continued here: 

Why Are We Talking About the Debt Ceiling Crisis As If It’s Normal Politics?

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Florida citrus growers binge on pesticides, endangering bees

by GeoffreyBlaine Posted on October 1, 2013

Florida citrus growers binge on pesticides, endangering bees

By

Shutterstock

Don’t breathe in!

Floridian citrus growers are upping the chemical ante as they struggle to save their groves from citrus greening — a devastating bacterial infection spread by tiny invasive insects known as Asian citrus psyllids.

While the orange growers used to spray insecticides a few times a year, The Ledger newspaper reports that they are now dousing their groves monthly. (And we recently told you about a Florida’s Natural supplier that was accused of spraying its crops every four days with multiple chemicals, killing off honeybee colonies and leading to a $1,500 fine.)

Needless to say, the region’s apiarists are none too pleased to see their bees being killed by the insecticides. The Ledger article describes a growing war between Florida’s powerful citrus growers and the smaller apiary industry:

A major issue for beekeepers comes during the citrus bloom period, which generally comes in March and April but can extend weeks earlier or later depending upon weather conditions.

Beekeepers involved in honey production traditionally place hives in or near groves so the bees produce citrus-flavored honey, one of the most popular varieties.

That practice puts bees in the line of fire when growers spray during bloom, an important period for controlling psyllids, who are especially drawn to new growth, Rogers said.

“The days of putting bees right in the middle of a grove, I think those days are gone,” said Bobbi Bell of Bell Apiaries LLC in Fort Meade, a 32-year veteran of the industry.

But beekeepers also contract with other growers to release bees in their fields for pollination, which also puts them at risk from pesticides in citrus groves.

The conundrum has Florida Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam, who is also a citrus grower, desperate to find a solution that can protect both the state’s fruit and honey industries.


Source
Citrus Growers, Beekeepers at Loggerheads Over Pesticides, The Ledger

John Upton is a science fan and green news boffin who tweets, posts articles to Facebook, and blogs about ecology. He welcomes reader questions, tips, and incoherent rants: johnupton@gmail.com.

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Florida citrus growers binge on pesticides, endangering bees

Posted in ALPHA, Anchor, FF, G & F, GE, LG, ONA, solar, solar panels, solar power, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Florida citrus growers binge on pesticides, endangering bees