By VERNON ROBISON
Moapa Valley Progress
Four leading clean energy groups announced their opposition last week to Nevada’s Question 3, the ballot initiative that seeks to break NV Energy’s monopoly and create an open energy market in Nevada.
In a combined statement released Thursday, the Sierra Club, Natural Resources Defense Council, Western Resource Advocates and Southwest Energy Efficiency Project (SWEEP) each expressed concerns over what the initiative might do to renewable energy projects already planned or underway in the state.
“Question 3 would deregulate the state’s electricity market and could disrupt the state’s progress toward a clean energy future,” the statement said.
“If Question 3 passes, it will upend the clean energy progress we’re making here in Nevada,” said Anne Macquarie, chair of the Sierra Club’s Toiyabe Chapter. “Right now, NV Energy has big plans for new solar infrastructure, and the rooftop solar market is quickly recovering, but that may all change. The uncertainty of a deregulated market threatens all of Nevada’s clean energy momentum, and that’s bad for jobs, it’s bad for public health, and it’s bad for clean air and water.”
The statement creates a strange alliance between two normally opposed parties: The Sierra Club and NV Energy, the regional utility which also opposes Question 3. The two entities have often engaged in legal wrangling in the past. The Sierra Club, along with the Moapa Band of Paiutes, filed a lawsuit in federal court against NV Energy in 2013. The suit sought to force NV Energy to clean up contaminated lands and waters surrounding the Reid Gardner coal-fired plant in Moapa.
Dylan Sullivan, senior scientist from the Natural Resources Defense Council, said that the Question 3 would be a clear setback to the renewable energy cause in the state. “Question 3 has been sold to voters as a way to get more renewable energy online in Nevada, but it will actually make it more difficult,” Sullivan said. “There will be years of market uncertainty as the legislature figures out how to implement complex restructuring, and even after that, electricity retailers have shown a reluctance to sign the long-term contracts it takes to get new renewables built.”
Robert Johnston, senior staff attorney for Western Resource Advocates in Nevada, said that NV Energy had made significant strides in recent years to beefing up renewable offerings in the state.
“NV Energy has changed course on renewable energy and is proposing new solar projects that will double its current level of renewable generation by 2023,” Johnston said. “By taking NV Energy out of the electricity generation business at this critical juncture, passage of Question 3 not only will kill these important projects, but it is likely to create a cloud of legal and regulatory uncertainty that could chill the development of new renewable projects by anyone else over the next 4-5 years.”
SWEEP Executive Director Howard Geller stated that the significant investments into conservation programs made in recent years by NV Energy are just about to pay off in savings to its ratepayers.
“Households and businesses served by NV Energy are expected to save nearly $700 million as a result of the utility’s energy efficiency programs implemented over the past decade,” said Geller. “If Question 3 passes, it would call into question the future of these cost-effective energy efficiency programs.”
Question 3, commonly called the Energy Choice Initiative, proposes an amendment to the state constitution to break up NV Energy’s regulated monopoly and replace it with an open market where consumers could choose their own energy providers.
This is the second time the measure is coming before the voters. As a constitutional amendment it must be approved by voters twice before it is passed. The question passed with 72 percent of the vote in 2016.
The initiative is funded by Las Vegas Sands and the major Las Vegas technology company Switch.
