Hasta La Gadget!

WASHINGTON — Arizona’s largest utility admitted this week that it had paid a national conservative group to run anti-solar ads, after denying earlier in the year that it was funding the campaign.

The Arizona Public Service has been pushing the state’s public utility commission to change a state policy that currently allows homes and businesses with their own solar power systems to sell the excess energy they generate back to the grid. The policy, known as net metering, has been in place in Arizona since 2009, and according to solar advocates in the state, it has helped create a boom in the demand for rooftop solar. APS is trying to change the policy by increasing prices for solar customers, based on the argument that those users aren’t paying their fair share for use of the grid and other infrastructure. Solar proponents say the proposed changes to net metering could essentially “kill rooftop solar in Arizona.”

The debate over the policy has split along some interesting political lines, with the son of Republican icon Barry Goldwater defending net metering against attacks from a national conservative organization. The 60 Plus Association, which presents itself as a more conservative alternative to the AARP, has been running ads in the state, along with a website, bashing the solar net-metering policy as “corporate welfare.”

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