GOP dares Hillary to talk net metering in Las Vegas
WASHINGTON — Hillary Clinton has expressed support for net metering, which allows homeowners who install rooftop solar panels to sell their excess electricity to the power company. In New Hampshire last month, she criticized utilities that resist the practice.
But in advance of the Democratic presidential candidate's latest trip to Las Vegas on Tuesday, Republicans are daring Clinton to speak out on net metering in a state where it is a growing controversy — and where the power company is owned by billionaire Clinton supporter Warren Buffet.
Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway company owns NV Energy, which provides electricity to Nevada.
NVEnergy finds itself in the midst of a storm after proposing to reduce the credit that customers with rooftop solar receive for selling their excess. The company says the current 11.6 cents per kilowatt hour rate paid to customers who send unused solar power to the company should be reduced to 5.5 cents as a more realistic value.
It's a scenario being played out around the country as utilities confront a new landscape of competition from solar on a home-by-home basis.
The solar industry says the proposed NVEnergy rate won't make rooftop solar sustainable in Nevada . It has support from Sen. Harry Reid, Nevada's most powerful clean energy booster.
Reid told reporters last week he was "concerned about this issue."
"I don't think it's helping their standing," Reid said of the power company. The National Clean Energy Summit that Reid is hosting on Aug. 24 in Las Vegas will feature participants debating net metering.
Speaking generally, Clinton delivered the same message at a town hall meeting in Dover on July 16 in which she spoke in part about managing a U.S. transition to clean energy.
"Number one we've got to prevent backsliding," she said, according to a CSPAN video of the event. "That's why I said watch out for utilities that want to stop clean renewable energy, and enabling customers to sell back to the grid because they want to prevent the transition."
Republican operatives pointed reporters to Clinton's remarks, and to records showing Buffett made a $25,000 contribution to a pro-Hillary Super PAC last year. He also donated $2,700 to her campaign in April. The billionaire businessman has made no secret of his support, saying in May that "I'm going to vote for her."
In the view of her critics, Clinton is showing inconsistency. "Her willingness to raise money from the very people she slams on the campaign trail shows just how fake her rhetoric is," said Republican spokesman Fred Brown.
Clinton's campaign did not comment when queried on Friday.
On Tuesday, Clinton will be at the Luxor speaking to the annual convention of the Nevada AFL-CIO. Two other Democratic presidential candidates — former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley and U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont — also are expected to address the group.
Clinton also plans to hold a town hall meeting at the Pearson Community Center in North Las Vegas at noon Tuesday.
Contact Review-Journal Washington Bureau Chief Steve Tetreault at stetreault@reviewjournal.com or 202-783-1760. Find him on Twitter: @STetreaultDC
