-
Want to remove ads? Register an account and login to see fewer ads, and become a Supporting Member to remove almost all ads.
- Status
When PA lost the solar incentive, it didn't look like they were going to enter PA. But they have bought-up at least one suburban installer, MainLine Solar, and integrated them into the company. They were a small installer and the employees fit the Solar City mold. There are still a good number of independent solar companies in PA and many do very good work. The ITC extension and lower product prices are helping them stay in business for a few more years.
Philadelphia work may be unions. They also have the office of L&I which is really an overseer of many things. But even for employees who live outside the city - they still have to pay 3.4% in wage taxes for work done in city limits. Either the company pays it (and hurts the profit margin) or the employees pay it and it is not much fun to pay 3.4% more for the "privilege" of working there. Or you can try to work in the city without reporting and that can be a dangerous thing longer term if a disgruntled employee blows the whistle.
When writing politicians, lines like the one bolded above are actually a threat. They imply that people want to hurt a segment of the business world, including other Americans who have viable jobs. Maybe take a different stand and say things like "slowly, but steadily, move off our heavy reliance on fossil fuels and transition those jobs and tax revenues to other high-wage positions in the renewables energy industry." Retaining and re-purposing businesses and jobs is key to a smooth and vibrant transition to the next century's primary growth industry - alternative fuels and energy distribution." Also, by naming names of specific companies, politicians see constituents "picking winners". Naming names is the fast way to be ignored by a politician. How can you help people - your co-habitants of this nation. How can you help your brother succeed through intelligent change? Through naming names, you indicate to a politician your intent to showcase one public company whos stock you may have interest in bolstering. Policy, the lifeblood of the politician, is blanket-based (across the populace) and not specific to a named company.
Last edited:
Krugerrand
Meow
Would love for you to post the letter/s you've sent to your state senators and other politicians. Then we'd have that perfect example.
TheTalkingMule
Distributed Energy Enthusiast
I've worked in the State Department and in conjunction with the communications office years ago. I know how little good some letter writing actually does. Also have seen many politicians request "what will it do for the majority of my constituents?" as their primary reason to even listen to a topic. A politician has to work for the body of the people and their averaged interests. No matter how much good something can do. The problem with politics is the nature of politics. It's not like being a parent where you can and should change the child. Making change in politics is nearly impossible because the body politic is so hard to please as a whole. Look at the disconnect now between the mindsets of Trump supporters and the Bernie supporters. Entirely different sectors.
The way renewables make the most charge-ahead is by dropping the incentives and surviving incentive-free. That removes a lot of the stigma that some groups are crowing about. This may include trying to transition from ITC to state-based PUC driven incentive programs. For instance, instead of 30% ITC, there could be a $.50/kWh FIT or similar production incentive. That is well above market rates for generators to ignore. Then you get the large-scale power producers ramping up larger many-MW sites. FIT is how Ontario grew its solar initiatives. But ITC does not require production levels to be good. You can install on the wrong side of a house or have huge shadow effects - the ITC payback doesn't care. Make renewables consumption-based to grow the most.
CA and NY are way ahead in giving away money for renewable programs - but those states also supplement the ITC as well making for enormous incentive packages. But to make for national programs that are equivalent, each state needs to see the value similarly. Every state wants power. Not every state is ready to hand over the $ Billions to do it in large-scale. And the only way to reach senators and congress (state or federal) is through influential lobby programs and action committee groups (also PACs) who may have some "big name" members.
TheTalkingMule
Distributed Energy Enthusiast
I think he/she was saying that it's rude and off-topic to critique a letter that's already been sent to another member's legislator.
Sarah Palin and Bill Nye featured in anti-climate change film
Sarah Palin vs Bill Nye, the jokes will write themselves.
Sarah Palin vs Bill Nye, the jokes will write themselves.
So oil is up, SCTY is up and crazy short interest still. The suspense is killing me so I picked up some $40 J18's that I'm Okay keeping long term but will eagerly sell if there's a big move up. 3 times cheaper than the onese I already have at that strike, ugh.
Krugerrand
Meow
So,
a) you don't have any examples of letters you've written to your senator or other state officials/politicians for us to read as excellent examples, and
b) you just wanted to trash someone else's efforts to make yourself look good, because you believe from your own experiences that it doesn't actually matter how good or bad the letter is written, it will be ignored.
So,
a) you don't have any examples of letters you've written to your senator or other state officials/politicians for us to read as excellent examples, and
b) you just wanted to trash someone else's efforts to make yourself look good, because you believe from your own experiences that it doesn't actually matter how good or bad the letter is written, it will be ignored.
bonaire's post was informative and helpful for someone who wanted to improve the impact of the letter they send. No value judgement in that one, just useful, relevant information coming from experience. The fact that you see it the way you do tells a lot more about you than about OP.
Krugerrand
Meow
I didn't find it informative or helpful. Did you not read his second post on the subject? Let me quote you his first two sentences just in case you missed it: I've worked in the State Department and in conjunction with the communications office years ago. I know how little good some letter writing actually does.
TheTalkingMule got it exactly right, but I gave Bonaire the benefit of the doubt (against my better judgement after reading his opinions on SA vs what he posts here) and asked him to share with us all one of those perfect letter examples he talked about that he'd written to his state senator. That way we could all get it right next time any of us wanted to try to make a difference. Instead Bonaire came right out and said, 'I know how little good some letter writing actually does.' So, what was his point of dissecting Dave's already sent letter? At least Dave is doing his part and trying. We now know Bonaire isn't going to bother.
jhm
Well-Known Member
It seems that SolarCity's stock price seems to be moving in parallel with crude oil. This would explain recent price gains.
I had tried to see if there was a correlation, but the relationship seems unreliable over time, sometime positive sometimes negative. More recently before the end of 2015, SolarCity had a tremendous run up owing to ITC extension. And this was contrary to movement in oil and made recent correlation negative.
So I will be taking a second look at hedging SolarCity by shorting oil. If you are interested in this, I will be posting on this topic in the Shorting Oil Hedging Tesla thread.
I had tried to see if there was a correlation, but the relationship seems unreliable over time, sometime positive sometimes negative. More recently before the end of 2015, SolarCity had a tremendous run up owing to ITC extension. And this was contrary to movement in oil and made recent correlation negative.
So I will be taking a second look at hedging SolarCity by shorting oil. If you are interested in this, I will be posting on this topic in the Shorting Oil Hedging Tesla thread.
THE MAN IN THE ARENA
Excerpt from the speech "Citizenship In A Republic"
delivered at the Sorbonne, in Paris, France on 23 April, 1910
download PDF of complete speech
It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.
I say, write the letter. Act upon those things you believe to be moral imperatives.
Excerpt from the speech "Citizenship In A Republic"
delivered at the Sorbonne, in Paris, France on 23 April, 1910
download PDF of complete speech
It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.
I say, write the letter. Act upon those things you believe to be moral imperatives.
Top U.S. coal company Peabody Energy files for bankruptcy
Good things happen, when good men do the right things.
Good things happen, when good men do the right things.
That's surprising, they were paying 4% for tsla as of a couple weeks ago.
Last edited:
TSLA has been at 3% at Schwab for a few weeks at least. You might be thinking of another brokerage.
You mean "surprising" that it is so high compared to the rate for TSLA?
Regarding letter writing - I was trying to state that politicians do not want to be told which company is doing what and also which will "put the final nail in the coffin" of certain industries. Their own people/constituents and even family members may be employed there. Rather, look at ways to say that the new industries offer a far better long-term alternative for humanity.
Do I write letters now? No. The reason is that they do no good. I've written to my state representative to ask them to vote for certain bills in DC regarding climate initiative. I never keep copies of what I send through the onilne access portals for reps. I have republican federal representatives here and trying to get them to do good in DC for climate cause or renewables is not exactly going to fly. One of our big city democratic legislators who attended and spoke at a plug-in day three years ago has been indicted on related to their alleged roles in a racketeering and influence-peddling conspiracy. I have a power company who cannot even put together a TOU program after spending $500 Million of government funds to deploy smart meters. And when we write to legislators, instead of asking for more incentives, we need to look at what does the most good for everyone.
Education.
Let's get people educated first, guide them to buy the energy-wise, implement laws for community solar and wind "group buys" to allow shared ITC aggregation. If 100 homeowners paid into a 1MW solar PV array farm, at perhaps $2/watt installation, that does more good for the community than 100 homeowners installing 100 10KW solar arrays on their houses at $3/watt. Cost of scale is what we need for the most common good for the best results. With community solar, you also can have centralized management, centralized cleaning services and a far more expedient installation program. Modules installed per hour on a solar farm blows away home rooftops. But since rooftops take up "zero new land" they make some sense in denser populations. We have to decide; do we want an energy program or a jobs program? Are we pumping our favorite stocks or are we building a truly sustainable future in a very cost effective and fair manner? Maybe we should work under a "profit limit" environment like the 8-A government agency set-asides where prices of installation is limited to cost plus a small profit. Where companies cannot over-state the market value of their installed sites to get the most government incentive payback.
Besides solar farms, next best option would be government owned land such as parking garage-top solutions and building-top solutions on state and local government-owned buildings. They're not going anywhere.
Do I write letters now? No. The reason is that they do no good. I've written to my state representative to ask them to vote for certain bills in DC regarding climate initiative. I never keep copies of what I send through the onilne access portals for reps. I have republican federal representatives here and trying to get them to do good in DC for climate cause or renewables is not exactly going to fly. One of our big city democratic legislators who attended and spoke at a plug-in day three years ago has been indicted on related to their alleged roles in a racketeering and influence-peddling conspiracy. I have a power company who cannot even put together a TOU program after spending $500 Million of government funds to deploy smart meters. And when we write to legislators, instead of asking for more incentives, we need to look at what does the most good for everyone.
Education.
Let's get people educated first, guide them to buy the energy-wise, implement laws for community solar and wind "group buys" to allow shared ITC aggregation. If 100 homeowners paid into a 1MW solar PV array farm, at perhaps $2/watt installation, that does more good for the community than 100 homeowners installing 100 10KW solar arrays on their houses at $3/watt. Cost of scale is what we need for the most common good for the best results. With community solar, you also can have centralized management, centralized cleaning services and a far more expedient installation program. Modules installed per hour on a solar farm blows away home rooftops. But since rooftops take up "zero new land" they make some sense in denser populations. We have to decide; do we want an energy program or a jobs program? Are we pumping our favorite stocks or are we building a truly sustainable future in a very cost effective and fair manner? Maybe we should work under a "profit limit" environment like the 8-A government agency set-asides where prices of installation is limited to cost plus a small profit. Where companies cannot over-state the market value of their installed sites to get the most government incentive payback.
Besides solar farms, next best option would be government owned land such as parking garage-top solutions and building-top solutions on state and local government-owned buildings. They're not going anywhere.
- Status
Similar threads
