Herzik, Mendy Elliot Ernie and b. C. On nevada newsmakers were pleased to welcome to the show is reid hamilton of hamilton solar. 2015 is going to be incredibly challenging for the solar in the state of nevada. Its kind of a broad question. For residential solar its dead. Unless theres a massive ruling its not going to change. Were waiting to see from the p. C. E from the bureau fof consumer protection. That the damage has been done. So you invested in solar and you want to invest in solar. Is going to make sense that solar is going to go forward because the net metering rates. Utility. So its been cut in half. Even more than half. So essentially you not to sell anything back to the ng energy. And youre at work youre going to get 10 cents credit. Now youre going to get the wholesale rate which is 2 and a half to 4 cents. They killed the value of the net metering. The second they added a charge for people who want to have net metering. We dont know what that charge but a lot of the Solar Systems save 20 20 to 40 to 50 a month. So that wipes that savings. And for every homeowner. Whether you have solar or not. This is a new charge. Basically this is essentially you want to go solar this is your solar charge. We knew this was coming. But theyve done to the terms of between 3 to 5 a month which is somewhat manageable. And weve sat down and ran the math. It costs you more money to have solar on your home than not. Im going to play devils advocate here. This is not only happening in nevada. Which is the Power Companies they still have to be there when the sun doesnt shine and the wind doesnt blow. And somebody has to pay the cost of that. And at this point in time thats paid by the customer base. Do you have a rebuttal. Its a challenging aspect or way to look at it. In 2014 the nv energy had a study done that tried to show what the Economic Impact of the net metering or people going to solar was. Back in 2014 it was a 36 million it was to the economic base. Now they went back and it was a 6 600 negative impact. 600 in the south. And 400 in the north. Advocate is going to prevail . You know, i dont know. I hope so. But at the end of the day im doubtful. This was such a massive blow that in my opinion this is whether nv energy its a way for them to slow down the momentum weve made over the course of the last five or six years. Nobody thought it was going to explode the way it was. Now were a real threat to nv energy. So the and this ruling. A Small Company like me. Two weeks ago i was a guy with 35 employees. In a week im going to be a guy with three employees. This has a massive massive impact on us. What the puc and what nv energy state of nevada which is look i do i have a different Business Model than the large guys. At the same time i support the energy and the effort that theyve done to help the industry grow that. So theyre putting us on our heels. Are there any rebates for solar from the Power Company from the federal government. Its kind of funny. One week were seing berating the itc which is the 30 tax credit. That was set to expire at the end of this year 2016. That got a fiveyear extension. We have a fiveyear window to design our businesses and grow. Which is a long time in the theres a small cash back on the nevada newsmakers we continue our conversation with reid hamilton. He heads up hamilton solar a company that is diminish rapidly from 35 employees to three employees if the rules continue. Im surprised at this point in time puc has been such a champion of all renewables to condemn or condone the actions of the puc and the actions of the nv energy. He did back in september when we interviewed him in september. And they needed to get in the modern era. What are your thoughts about be doing at the same time. Thats why were here. Hes obviously sun setting his career. It would be tough to try to put words in his mouth right now. If i were him im looking at nvern for years i helped create this Solar Program and this renewable program. And the for a long times weve supported that. And now some very short and irresponsible actions have essentially kled this industry. Its been the holidays. Ive been talking a lot of friends from all over the place. And their first reid, whats going on. Its gotten to the point where its simply embarrassing. Were in nevada. We bring in tesla, and all these bring and latest and greatest things yet we kill the environmental industry. On the other side of the Social Security number you have nv energy working with Companies Like switch and charging a premium to do that. And theyre offering residential customers the chance to have Renewable Energy again at a premium. Your thoughts on that. At the end of the day nv energition a business. So if you take a look at some of the solar impacts over the course last couple of years what impacts have been made for nv energy compared for net metering customers. A lot of the positive growth has been switch style projects and essentially where theres a negative economic net metering has been crushed. Can i ask you a quick question. As an outsider. Like to you. To be honest my job is to ask questions rather than answer them. Questions. I would have to ask you what you thought about the idea that several major Casino Companies wanted to withdraw from nv energy and buy their own energy on the market. And the puc ruling made it so expensive for them to leave they all balked at leaving. On some goodsized commercial projects that would have been rules it will make economic sense for these guys because of the scale of the projects. Its obviously an interesting part. Rebecca wagner who was on the puc recently resigned and went into private practice. What difference has that made in terms of how the puc is operating. With rebecca we had a sense of an ally with the puc. Its my personal opinion we need to all be responsible. We as a Community Whether were Business Owners whether were on the puc. We need to be conscious of whats going on in the environment. And so with rebecca i think she really cared about the environment and was able to find ways lets take the environment side and blend them together so they make sense. And he was very quick to the Solar Industry with all of the complaints against the pucs ruling to say theyre a legal body. They take the positions they take, and as governor and im paraphrasing. Essentially he said there are other remedies in the courts that Solar Companies can go through and they should do that rather than attacking the Governors Office and the puc. Thats fine. Im a small business. We can go after the puc in this decision and it might take us a six months or a year. It doesnt matter were out of business. Can we come back. We just brought a lot of people into the state. And now were sending a lot of people out of the Solar Industry. I guess that the last issue i would raise is that for for example Las Vegas Review journal have said its time for the Renewable Energy is time for to get rid of the Government Supports and stand on its own. Our goal is to get away from subsidies. Give us a window. It wasnt hey on december 22nd you have eight days and heres your new rollout. Its going to be a fouryear rollout of what the new rates look like. Renewables have subsidies. They have one sixth as oil, coal and gas. Thats where we have to leave it. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. Timeout. And back on nevada newsmakers we have a great pundit panel as ernie adler former state 74 and eric herzik is political professor at unr. And mendy elliot. Its relatively shocking from a business to go from 35 employees to 3. I think its aironic to create jobs yet were not willing to continue with the Subsidy Program and solar panels and were going to perhaps lose 6,000 jobs. Be giving them all these tax credits credits. As i mentioned in the interview with reid its surprising that senator reed hasnt been more vausive russ in his comments. I think he should be. Were losing a lot of jobs. And you know that the governor was obviously quite irked both on himself and the puc and said there are legal remedies for this and this should be pursued through the courts. What the governors role might be in this. In listening to the conversation. We just had a special session. If there was an opportunity to fix, tweak or have some type of im not sure i do feel sorry for the courts have to go through the court system understanding the Court Systems like i do. It is very unfortunate that we had this window of a couple of days and they could have talked about this and discussed what happened at the midnight hour during the last legislative session. Eric as you look at this nv energy is a company that wants to make money but there are also rules and regulations about how they go about that. What do you feel is the benefit or loss to the consumer overall for this. This they have a controlled company. They are more or less a legal monopoly. Youre losing a lot of the environmental benefit. You have a lot of people i dont care about that. Cents. And so this was a major change. This was a complete reversal and ernie is right by saying if this was a Single Company coming into the state. Sandoval would be doing back flips to give them the same breaks that they are wiping out. Theyre taking this fee from 15 a month to 44 44 a month plus theyre cutting in half when they resell their solar energy back to the company. It took the state of nevada 20 years to develop this system where we were going to have in essential tis for rooftop solar. They announced at the last hour with very little testimony. Very little scution of policy and they just flipped everything 1 if i was somebody that invested 30 30,000 in solar panels when i have been encouraged id be furious. Men dedo you think theres a class axction suit brewing in this state of ours. It might be difficult to have a class action suit. I think it would be very difficult to have a class action suit. I think there is going to be some lit gatings as it relates. Theyre going to lose their customers. And the employees. Theyre going to be gone. As reid said theyre gone. Hes basically out of business. So the city theyre pulling out the courts thats a really lousy remedy. Youre up against a Massive Corporation thats going to do everything they can to delay. If it should be decided upon whether its done in the special session or done by the governor they both passed on it. Theyre quite happy with whats going to benefit nv energy. I just want to say. I think that the governor has put in place some excellent policies but i do wonder and im not understanding in totality but i do think that there is some opportunities to revisit this. You read it every day the impact of this. This is not just 10 jobs. Its 6,000 job. These are people that cared, and these systems with the thinking that if i put in theyre not cheap systems if i invest in these systems i have a longterm. Im doing something good for the environment and its helping me with my energy bill. Thats where we have to leave we welcome the governor on our next broadcast rich