Anti-solar power bill advances in Kentucky House, despite protests from Lexington and Louisville - Entrepreneur Generations

"Kentucky's urban-rural divide surfaced during a legislative committee's final discussion about a controversial solar energy bill Thursday before it was narrowly passed with three new members added to the panel," James Bruggers reports for the Louisville Courier Journal.

The bill, introduced by Republican State Rep. Jim Gooch of Providence, would reduce the credits utilities must provide to future solar panel owners for any extra electricity they produce.

The bill moved out of the House Natural Resources and Energy Committee with 14 yes votes (two more than needed), possibly helped because the committee was expanded from 19 to 22 members last week; two of the three new appointees voted for the bill.

Supporters of the coal industry like the bill, but it was unpopular in more Democratic areas like Lexington and Louisville. "In an interview, southeast Kentucky Democrat, Rick Nelson of Middlesboro, who was also added late to the committee, said the bill looks to him like a way for monopoly utilities 'to get solar for themselves,'" Bruggers reports. Which is an interesting theory, since the parent company of Kentucky's two major utilities, LG&E and KU, has announced it will eliminate the bulk of its coal-burning in years to come.

from The Rural Blog http://ift.tt/2EwSJ7g Anti-solar power bill advances in Kentucky House, despite protests from Lexington and Louisville - Entrepreneur Generations

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