Where I Stand:

How about some power to the people?

Sun, May 17, 2015 (2 a.m.)

Do yourself a favor. Walk outside. Look up, toward the sun, not directly into it. What do you see? What do you feel? What do you think about that?

Here is what I think. In 2005, former President Bill Clinton came to Las Vegas to speak at the Nevada Development Authority’s annual dinner. A room full of business types crowded together, not necessarily because they wanted to listen to President Clinton but because their businesses insisted they come to show support for the NDA.

By the time President Clinton was through, the room full of people was standing on its feet, giving a rousing show of support for the former president and, more importantly, for what he said.

What did he talk about?

Jobs, solar energy and Southern Nevada’s great opportunity to become the Saudi Arabia of solar power. All we had to do was seize the moment and get to work. That was 10 years ago! President Clinton has been back a few times with a similar message, and each time the people have cheered what they heard.

So far, though, about all we have done is cheer. All in all, we have done mostly nothing.

Of course, City Center did something. It set a tone for environmentally smart development. And our Legislature reacted like dinosaurs. Instead of encouraging more smart building, our lawmakers recoiled into the land of yesterday. Spending money for sustainability was bad; wasting money and fouling the environment with carbon-based fuels was good.

So now comes the 2015 Legislature and the opportunity to grab a large piece of the energy future for ourselves and our families, and what do we do? Again, nothing. Or perhaps, very little. More to the point, the people’s representatives are ignoring the future in favor of the past.

We have neglected to help ourselves every year since Bill Clinton drew the road map to prosperity at that NDA event. And each time we have favored the status quo and the monied interests over the innovative change that is ours for the taking.

This time, progress and job growth have manifest themselves at the Legislature in the efforts of some of our more progressive and thoughtful companies that want to make their footprints green, their power bills cheaper and their futures more sustainable. And they also have taken shape in an effort to create an environment for homeowners across Nevada to go green and go solar in their own homes. Yet, they are being thwarted at every turn by the status quo.

This is not an anti-NV Energy column. Rather, it is a recognition that at the beginning of the 21st century, the time is right for Nevadans to recognize what is staring us in the face — the sun — and using it to build the next generation of jobs and growth for our community.

Our legislators, however, seem more concerned about making sure that monopoly power suppliers such as NV Energy remain in a position to thwart the innovation that can reduce the rates we pay for energy in the coming decades. And they don’t seem to care about the beneficial effect going green will have on our environment.

There are a few large companies that, trying to stay competitive with power rates in other states and with an eye to reducing their carbon footprints, want to either persuade the power company to treat them like the large customers they are or, in the alternative, leave the grid in favor of creating their own green power.

You would think such a move would be easy, and you would certainly think the governor and the Legislature would want to encourage Nevadans, who live in the land of sunshine aplenty, to take the bold and innovative steps toward a cleaner and more efficient-energy future.

You, of course, would be thinking wrong!

Elon Musk just announced a battery system that will help solve the challenge of how to store solar-generated power for use at night. Solar panels, once cost-prohibitive and highly inefficient, are now cost-competitive and much more efficient. And they are getting better by the day, enough so that constantly rising carbon-fueled power rates soon will cross the line where generating solar power will become cheaper — and far healthier for the planet.

Who among us believes we will run out of sunlight anytime soon? Conversely, how much gas and oil do you think is left, and do you think that becomes more or less expensive over time as supplies dwindle and demand increases? And let’s not forget the damage burning those fuels will do to our environment.

So given the abundance of free sunlight and the ever-decreasing cost of solar in perhaps the sunniest region of the world, why is our Legislature doing most everything it can to discourage the big companies from leaving the grid to build their own renewable-power plants, thus removing the burden from NV Energy to build new plants that customers will have to pay for?

And why is it getting harder for individual homeowners to reduce their own carbon footprints by putting solar panels on their roofs, which will reduce their own energy costs and dramatically reduce our community’s requirement for expensive power produced elsewhere?

I know the answer. It is money. It makes the world go around and the Legislature go around in circles chasing its own tail when it should be making Nevada the leader in renewable-energy production.

Truth is, in the waning days of the 2015 Legislature, those folks could use a push. Or a shove. Our good governor, Brian Sandoval, is the perfect man for the job.

It is either find a way to get sustainable, more efficient power to the people or use special-interest power against the people.

Brian Greenspun is owner, publisher and editor of the Las Vegas Sun.

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