Op/Ed: WV lawmakers can make solar jobs happen

Two millennials who want to stay in West Virginia delivered a message for to West Virginia legislators in The (Huntington) Herald-Dispatch (Jan. 5, 2020):

On-site Power Purchase Agreements are "one simple policy change [that] can help revitalize our state’s struggling cities, towns, and rural communities with an influx of new jobs, local tax revenue, and private investment."

Read the full Op/Ed here.

Thanks to West Virginians For Energy Freedom coalition members Autumn Long of Solar United Neighbors of West Virginia and Joey James of Downstream Strategies for this Op/Ed.

Contact legislative leaders today and ask them to sponsor a bill enabling on-site PPAs.

Bluefield City Council passes resolution asking legislators to legalize PPAs

The Buefield City Council unanimously passed a resolution urging state lawmakers to legalize on-site Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) in the upcoming session. 

Bluefield joins Morgantown as the second West Virginia city to pass a resolution in favor of making the third-party financing agreements available. Bluefield, one of the state’s most southern cities, is a member of West Virginians For Energy Freedom coalition. 

PPAs are a widely available method to finance distributed energy generation projects such as rooftop solar panels or landfill biogas. At least 28 states allow PPAs, including Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Maryland.

Bluefield’s City Manager will send the resolution of support to the West Virginia Senate President, the Speaker of the House, and local legislators for the next full legislative session. In 2019, two bills that would have legalized on-site PPAs stalled in committee. 

Bluefield’s resolution cites the advantages PPAs would give the city and state by:

• Helping residents, nonprofits, and municipalities have more control over their energy bills with zero upfront costs;

• Creating much-needed local jobs; and

• Attracting employers – especially those with a renewable energy mandate – to locate and invest in West Virginia.

West Virginians For Energy Freedom is gearing up its campaign to legalize on-site PPAs for the 2020 state legislative session. 

Interested in drafting a resolution for your city/town council or county commission to consider? Email us for details. Want to join our #PPAs4WV campaign? Click here to send an email to your representatives in the WV Senate and House of Representatives.

Letter to Editor: Open power market to PPAs

Robin Blakeman penned a response to The (Huntington) Herald-Dispatch’s Sept. 22, 2019, editorial: “W.Va. budget must prepare for post-coal economy.”

Here’s an excerpt:

I agree with The Herald-Dispatch editorial board that West Virginia lawmakers and officials must prepare for the reality of a post-coal economy. We need to strengthen and diversify our state’s economy to make up for declining coal severance taxes and protect ourselves against the boom-bust price shocks of the oil and gas industry.

One solution is to incentivize renewable energy development in West Virginia.

Investing in renewable energy now will bring thousands of good new jobs to our state, boost entrepreneurship and local business development, and encourage corporate employers to locate and invest here. …

One simple step our elected officials can take to grow the state’s renewable energy sector is to legalize on-site power purchase agreements (PPAs) for renewable energy resources.

Read the full letter here. If you support PPAs, consider adding your comments to the letter.

Interested in writing an op/ed or letter to the editor? Let us know.

Op/Ed: An energy policy that can help small businesses

Legalizing solar power purchase agreements is a "smart policy" that would give West Virginia businesses and nonprofits more choices to secure the future of our state’s economy, write Marten Jenkins of Natural Capital Investment Fund and Gat Caperton of Gat Creek/Caperton Furniture Works in an op/ed published in The (Beckley) Register-Herald.

Read the full op/ed here.

Weelunk article features plug for power purchase agreements

Great post on Weelunk about Wheeling residents who have gone solar. Community leader Mary Ellen Cassidy and her husband gave each other solar panels as an anniversary gift.

Cassidy soon became a solar advocate and believes third-party financing through power purchase agreements (PPAs) is critical to bring for on-site renewable energy to West Virginia’s nonprofits, churches, and schools.

PPAs are illegal in WV. What’s getting in the way of #PPAs4WV? Politics, Cassidy says.

Read the full post here.

West Virginians For Energy Freedom statement on legislative bailout for FirstEnergy

FirstEnergy continues to put West Virginia taxpayers on the hook for its failing business model. This B&O tax bailout was not the first, nor will it be the last, time FirstEnergy has asked for a government handout. When will these corporate giveaways end?

The 40-year-old Pleasants Power Station can no longer compete in a 21st-century energy marketplace. Over $12 million a year in avoided B&O tax payments falls far short of offsetting its future losses and remains a bad deal for West Virginians. Sadly, the State Legislature has capitulated to FirstEnergy's demands.

West Virginia needs to be looking forward, not propping up old power plants that can no longer compete on their own merits. West Virginians for Energy Freedom sees this for what it is: the latest in a series of rent-seeking behaviors from a bankrupt Ohio-based company.

About West Virginians For Energy Freedom

PHOTOS BY ROGER MAY
These people are some of the West Virginia residents who spoke out against FirstEnergy's bid for corporate welfare at the PSC's Public Hearings in Parkersburg, Martinsburg and Morgantown. More than 100 people spoke at the Public Comment Hearings. Of those, 71 opposed FirstEnergy's bailout attempt.

West Virginians For Energy Freedom is a coalition of your neighbors, organizations in your community, local businesses, municipalities and elected officials advocating for energy freedom in West Virginia.

Here's a summary of our advocacy for West Virginians and energy freedom during FirstEnergy's case before the Public Service Commission of West Virginia. More than 2,500 letters of protest and petitions against FirstEnergy were posted to the PSC docket. Only 51 letters of support were registered.

Our current campaign: Legalizing power purchase agreements for on-site renewable energy sources during the next full session of the legislature.