Page 8 - Rate Payers News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

William? >> reporter: well, heather, right now the battle is between small inner-city solar systems like you see here at occidental college and big ones in the desert. secondly, is it time for rate-payers who can't afford solar to stop subsidizing those who can? whether it is produced in the desert -- >> epa entered into a long term agreement to purchase all of the power that solan will produce. >> reporter: or on a rooftop. >> this is power whether it is needed and where it is needed. >> reporter: this is solar power generating business. >> we're over 300 application as month. >> reporter: an...

Where it's needed and we produce it and we sell it for example in parts of california at a fixed-rate. >> reporter: from hawaii to arizona, utility executives are now pushing back, arguing that solar subsidies now are too generous and expensive for rate-payers who can't afford a rooftop system to pay or subsidize those who can. >> we can not sustain this rate of expenditure for one particular sector. it is about time that they get off the training wheels and run on their own. >> reporter: now l.a. department of water and power, bwp, manages america's largest rooftop system solar program. it sa...

Solar is it is spread out. >> reporter: l.a. water and power manages america's largest rooftop program. demand is off the charts but non-solar customers help pay the price. >> get a 30% federal tax credit and the utility gives you extra incentive to help you pay to offset the cost of that system. >> reporter: those incentives mandated by regulators are prompting a backlash. in arizona the utility says rooftop solar costs other rate-payers $1,000 a year, an unfair subsidy. in hawaii lawmakers are trying to reform a similar subsidy, costing taxpayers millions. >> we want to support renewable ene...

And we had one phone company up in alaska that for four years, they gave false information to the sec. they were fined a million dollars dollars, but that's a drop in the bucket. >> brian: a lot of people say this is cracking down on people that are having a hard time and need these phones. what do you say to people who say that to you? >> well, the people are paying approximatelily $2.50 a month, the rate payers. some of the people, the poor people that cannot afford the phones need them and i feel sorry they have been caught in this. but there is just as many poor people that's just above th...

People. is planning to spend $4 billion over ten years to upgrade its system that includes rebuilding many of those substations that were damaged in the storm. >> just look at superstorm sandy. we estimate that about you know, half of the customers would not have been impacted if these stations were higher, if the controls were higher so we would have obviously provided better service and that would have been better for the customers. >> reporter: better for u ser advice but utility bills are another matter. new jersey utility bills are already among the high nets nation and expected to fall i...