Give him some credit for being upfront about this ripoff, though I am sure he is claiming to be a hero. Family interests aside, is there some irony that the Chinese will be owning a company that wouldn’t have demand unless a US Senator successfully coerces a public utility customer into purchasing its products the excess costs of which are the burden of ratepayers?
And there are some legitimate reasons: Power costs are passed directly to consumers, and green energy currently costs more than power generated by coal-fired or natural-gas burning plants. State law mandates NV Energy buy power as cheaply as possible, except when it’s required to buy more-expensive green energy to meet state-mandated quotas. But the more green energy you buy, the higher bills climb.
NV Energy has already met its quota, and the PUC has already turned the company down when it proposed contracts that would have exceeded quotas. And when the company does buy power – which it plans to do next in 2014 – it does so by analyzing competitive bids.
Reid says those [are] weak excuses. He said in that April interview that if “NV Energy wanted to do more with renewable energy, they could.”
via Costs, conflicts arise in Reid push for green power – Opinion – ReviewJournal.com.