Kansas Supreme Court rule in favor of renewable energy

In a victory for renewable energy, the Kansas Supreme Court ruled that customers generating their own energy cannot be charged any more than customers that do not. The ruling now makes it unlawful to charge extra fees on residential solar and wind generation customers.

A win for renewable energy users in Kansas.

A lawsuit filed by Earthjustice, the Sierra Club and Vote Solar contested Kansas Corporate Commission’s approval of “demand charges” on such residential customers, which has become a national trend led by utility lobbyists, a press release stated. The court ruled the charge was “simply price discrimination.” 

“As the Kansas Supreme Court recognized, charging solar customers more for their electricity is price discrimination, plain and simple,” David Bender, the Earthjustice attorney who argued the case, said. “Kansans, like all Americans, have a right to the free solar energy delivered to their roofs every day without fear of illegal utility charges that serve only to preserve the utility’s anti-competitive monopoly and prop up uneconomic fossil fuels. We are happy the court agreed with us.”

The ruling stated that the “rate design is unlawful and the [KCC] erred by approving a discriminatory rate in violation” of Kansas law.

Read the story from Nation of Change by Ashley Curtin - "Kansas Supreme Court rule in favor of renewable energy.”

How luxury brands suddenly made electric cars desirable

Many Bentley customers believe they have obtained their wealth because of luck. So says Bentley Motors Ltd.'s new chairman and chief executive officer, Adrian Hallmark, during an interview in Geneva.

Mercedes' sold-out electric Project 1.

"I have recognised that a lot of our customers follow a similar thing: They are super-successful. And a lot of them think it's because they're lucky," he says. "That's really important, because they don't think they're above human weakness and frailty.”

Such perceived (and believed) good fortune is spurring the world's millionaires and billionaires to make luxury purchases, based on a system of values such as reduced carbon footprints and sustainability, he adds.

Read Hannah Elliott’s story from The Age - “How luxury brands suddenly made electric cars desirable.”

(Again, we need to urgently get beyond the idea of the ownership of private transport if we are to ever navigate our way to a truly sustainable world. Private transport needs, no demands, an energy-rich infrastructure and is contrary to the gentleness needed to create a world able to thrive within a damaged atmosphere - our future is going to be about quieter, slower and more restrained living, quite the opposite of the image portrayed by the existing motor industry, particularly those manufacturers who consider themselves “luxury brands” - Robert McLean)

New Nissan Leaf EV confirmed for Australia delivery

As customers in the UK begin taking delivery of Nissan’s next generation all-electric LEAF, news has emerged that the latest version of the world’s highest selling EV is due to arrive on Australian soil sometime after July this year, and before the end of June 2019.

The new Leaf EV from Nissan.

In a statement published on the Nissan website on Tuesday, the Japan-based auto giant said the new LEAF would go on sale in seven markets in Asia and Oceania during the coming fiscal year, including Australia, Hong Kong, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea and Thailand.

The company is also exploring introducing the zero-emission car in other markets in the region, including Indonesia and the Philippines, it said.

As noted above, Nissan has led the global electric vehicle market on sales since the first model went on sale in 2010, with more than 300,000 cars sold over the past seven years.

Read the RenewEconomy story by Sophie Vorrath - “New Nissan Leaf EV confirmed for Australia delivery.”

(We continue to struggle with the idea that personally owned private transport is simply unsustainable in an energy constrained world. 

Electric or otherwise, the personal owned private transport is of itself energy-rich and is only viable because of a road network infrastructure paid for by the public - it’s about ensuring private profit at public expense. 

Any rhetoric arguing about the convenience and practicality of private transport can be matched easily with a sophisticated public transport system that can answer the needs of both freight and people. The answers to the problems exist, we simply need to the will to make them happen.

However, it is unlikely that the profit intent behind the private transport industry will not submit easily to a push from public transport enthusiasts, but seemingly unbeknown to many, the drive for public transport has an implacable ally in climate change and if we are to have any chance at all of avoiding the inadequate promise made in Paris in December of 2015 then the private vehicle, electric or otherwise, must give way to an advanced public transport infrastructure)

Caught in a death spiral

As power prices rise, wealthier customers cut use, leaving the poor to pay more.

What’s most terrifying the electricity industry isn’t the threat of price control or a clean energy target or even being forced to keep open power stations that have long since ceased to work properly. It’s not even the government’s inability to come up with a clear set of rules. It’s a fear more primal – the same one gripping the national broadband network, public schools and private health funds. Analysts at AGL Energy call it ‘‘the death spiral’’. US economist Craig Severance coined the term six years ago. ‘‘In this nightmare, a utility commits to build a very expensive new power plant,’’ he wrote. ‘‘However, when electric rates are raised to pay for the new plant, the rate shock moves customers to cut their use. The utility then has no way to pay for the new power plant unless it raises rates even higher – causing a further spiral as customers cut their use even more or walk away.

‘‘In the final stages of that death spiral, the utility’s more affluent customers have drastically cut purchases by implementing efficiency and on-site [solar] power, but the poorest customers have been unable to finance such measures. The utility is then left attempting to collect higher and higher rates from poorer and poorer customers.’’

It’s been playing out in Australia since the late 2000s.

Read Peter Martin’s comment in today’s Melbourne Age - “Caught in a death spiral.”

Malcolm Turnbull has little chance of keeping energy bills under control

It's never my policy to feel sorry for any politician, so let's just say I wouldn't like to be in Malcolm Turnbull's shoes when he meets the electricity retailers he's summoned to Canberra on Wednesday.

His hope is to persuade them to do more to help their customers find the best prices on offer, so that any savings customers make reduce, to some extent, the further big price rises that are on the way.

Illustration: Andrew Dyson 

Trouble is, it's long been the practice of many big businesses – telcos, internet service providers, electricity retailers – to make it as hard as possible for their household customers to find the "plan" that meets their needs most economically, and also to take advantage of any trusting customer on a more expensive plan than they need.

So, whatever noises they make after their meeting with the Prime Minister, I can't see the likes of Energy Australia, Origin Energy and AGL – which between them have about 70 per cent of the retail market – volunteering to help their customers pay less.

Read the comment piece by Ross Gittins in today’s Melbourne Age - “Malcolm Turnbull has little chance of keeping energy bills under control.”