SEIA released its solar policy goals for the first 100 days of the new Biden administration in November 2020 under the assumption the Senate would remain controlled by Republicans. After Democrats secured two more Senate seats in Georgia’s Jan. 5 runoff election, the solar industry could have a much better chance of passing solar legislation through Congress rather than having to rely mostly on Biden’s executive powers.
Still, SEIA said the group is not assuming success is a given and will keep working hard to accomplish its industry goals like establishing energy storage incentives and expanding solar access to underserved communities.
Erin Duncan, VP of Congressional affairs at SEIA, issued the following statement:
“We congratulate Senators-elect Warnock and Ossoff and we look forward to working with them, President-elect Biden, and all the new and returning members of the 117th Congress to advance bold clean energy policy. Solar has strong bipartisan support on the Hill and Americans are increasingly demanding action on climate change. Solar offers jobs and economic growth, both sorely needed as our economy recovers. We hope to make meaningful progress on many of the priorities in our 100-day agenda, but our success isn’t a given and our work is just beginning. We will continue to advocate for policies that enhance market competition and that establish tax and trade provisions that enable the solar industry to play a leading role in America’s economic recovery.”
Solarman says
“”We will continue to advocate for policies that enhance market competition and that establish tax and trade provisions that enable the solar industry to play a leading role in America’s economic recovery.””
Market competition is not going to smooth out the inconsistent “soft costs” of installing a solar PV system on one’s roof. Either the anti price them out of the market by bringing local, county or State costs to install solar PV that increases the total cost of system installation, folks will balk at “doing solar PV now.” The solar PV system I have on my roof now, the County was so lazy as to “require” two stamped copies of the solar PV installation plans, one stamped by a Civil Engineer and one stamped by an Electrical Engineer before a construction permit was issued. This “extra mile” cost me $1,000 per stamp and signature. I could have had about six more solar PV panels installed on my roof for that price. It will literally take an “Act of Congress” to create a permitting system that is much more fair across all States of the Union to control bureaucratic soft costs.
John Almond says
With Biden, we will definitely see more green and clean ways in the U.S, however, like the article stated, we cannot assume success. I think the big thing here is that we are heading the right direction, but we still want to make sure that the foundation that is laid out is followed so we can finally get a strong green energy economy.
Alternative Energy is the future and Solar is leading the way.