Solar Legislation in the News

With new lawmakers in all levels of government across the US, there has been a lot of talk about solar legislation in the news lately. As the Solar Fastener Expert, we do our best to keep up on the latest, and we're here to help you do the same. Below are a couple articles that may be of interest to anyone in the solar industry:

THE TOP 10 SOLAR BATTLEGROUND STATES OF 2016

Forty-seven states and the District of Columbia took some form of action on distributed solar policy and rate design changes during 2016, according to the N.C. Clean Energy Technology Center’s (NCCETC) latest edition of its “50 States of Solar” report.

The report says a total of 212 state- and utility-level distributed solar policy and rate changes were proposed, pending or enacted last year. NCCETC says this represents an increase in solar policy activity over 2015, when 46 states plus D.C. took approximately 175 actions.

In its report, NCCETC also ranks what it considers the top 10 most active states in 2016 for solar policy developments, as follows: (Click here to read the full article at Solar Industry Magazine.)

VETO OVERRIDE: MD. LAWMAKERS ENACT CLEAN ENERGY JOBS ACT

Early in February, the Maryland Senate voted to override Gov. Larry Hogan’s veto of the Clean Energy Jobs Act, legislation to increase the state’s renewable energy goals. Following a similar 88-51 House of Delegates vote just a few days ago, the Senate’s 32-13 decision brings the legislation into law.

The Clean Energy Jobs Act (S.B.921/H.B.1106) boosts the state’s renewable portfolio standard (RPS) from 20% by 2022 to 25% by 2020, as well as raises the solar carve-out from 2% by 2022 to 2.5% by 2020. According to the Maryland Climate Coalition, the legislation will lead to roughly 1.3 GW of new clean energy in the state. (Click here to read the full article at Solar Industry Magazine.)