The Louisiana Public Service Commission held it’s monthly October meeting at a casino. What could go wrong??

The simple answer is that, people lost a lot of money. The game is rigged and the house always wins, but not just at the blackjack tables and the hotel bar.

​Last week, we updated you on two of the big votes at the LPSC’s October meeting, Entergy’s Experimental Renewable Option (ERO) and Net Metering, ironically both debating the value of solar. Months ago, Entergy has received approval to buy power from a 50 MW solar array, and now they want to sell it at a premium to commercial and industrial customers with sustainability goals. They argued that this solar energy is worth more because of the Renewable Energy Credits (RECs) that are available to the customers, and they’re not necessarily wrong. Solar energy has numerous benefits as we have clearly documented in the battle to save Net Metering. But, when it came to the discussion on rehearing the Net Metering docket, Entergy argued that the energy sent to the grid from residents with rooftop solar is not worth anything more than Avoided Cost, or what they would have bought it for on the market. 

So yes, the first half of the meeting was spent debating how valuable solar energy is when a utility has it to sell, and the second half of the meeting was spent debating why residents with rooftop solar shouldn’t be allowed to sell their clean energy at anything higher than the going market rate. This isn’t about solar or clean energy, it’s about a monopoly maintaining ownership and control of all energy resources within their service territory, because the house always wins. 

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