February 20, 2017
Open Letter to Sen. Jim Merritt, Chair of the Senate Utilities Committee:
The owners of several Indiana solar companies and their customers are deeply troubled over what they believe are serious misrepresentations of Indiana’s current net metering rule during the discussion of SB 309 at the Senate Utilities Committee hearing Thursday, Feb. 16.
Many of them did not have a chance to watch the video of the proceedings until the weekend. When they did, they heard Sen. Brandt Herschman make some statements about the existing net metering rule in 170 IAC 4-4.2 to the committee that simply are not true.
In fact, some of his misstatements are so egregious we think they may have unfairly influenced Thursday’s committee vote. For this reason, we strongly urge the committee not to move forward on its report on SB 309 until these errors can be rectified. We also believe committee members should have a chance to change their vote after they receive the correct information.
First, Sen. Hershman said: "Currently, under existing net metering rules from the IURC, when any individual utility reaches the renewable part of their portfolio, that is people net metering, that is equal to 1% of their baseload generation, net metering goes away. Gone. No grandfathering, no guarantee, nothing except wholesale rates." That is false.
Second, in response to a question from Sen. Houchin, Sen. Hershman says and if the 1% net metering caps were met the utilities could go to a "buy all, sell all" mechanism under existing law. That also is false.
These inaccurate statements by Hershman already have gone viral on social media and may well cause Senate phone lines to further light up this week as a growing number of people learn of them.
We know your committee members want to be as well informed as possible as they work to sort through SB 309, and that they also value their credibility with the public. In that spirit, we implore you to reconvene the committee so this critical misinformation can be brought to light.
On behalf of solar energy companies who are members of IndianaDG and their customers, we thank you.
Laura Ann Arnold, President
Indiana Distributed Energy Alliance (IndianaDG)
Laura Ann Arnold, President
Indiana Distributed Energy Alliance (IndianaDG)
(317) 635-1701 office; (317) 502-5123 cell
CC: Members of the Senate Utilities Committee