ALEC Plots Against Solar Savings, With Help From WI GOP Leaders

The Koch brothers-funded American Legislative Exchange Council - - ALEC - - is about push state legislatures to penalize homeowners who had the temerity to save energy and money by installing home solar devices.

So says The Guardian about a major ALEC meeting in Washington, DC, which senior Wisconsin politicians attended:

An alliance of corporations and conservative activists is mobilising to penalise homeowners who install their own solar panels – casting them as "freeriders" – in a sweeping new offensive against renewable energy, the Guardian has learned. 

Over the coming year, the American Legislative Exchange Council (Alec) will promote legislation with goals ranging from penalising individual homeowners and weakening state clean energy regulations, to blocking the Environmental Protection Agency, which is Barack Obama's main channel for climate action. 

Details of Alec's strategy to block clean energy development at every stage – from the individual rooftop to the White House – are revealed as the group gathers for its policy summit in Washington this week. 

About 800 state legislators and business leaders are due to attend the three-day event, which begins on Wednesday with appearances by the Wisconsin senator Ron Johnson and the Republican budget guru and fellow Wisconsinite Paul Ryan.

How soon before we see this approach appear in bill form in Wisconsin: the State Journal is reporting tonight that a third of the State Legislature are ALEC members - - in other words, plenty of corporately-controlled Republicans.

Also for the ALEC/Wisconsin record:

High-profile Wisconsin GOP officials have long been members of ALEC, including Tommy Thompson and Scott Walker.

Also playing key ALEC roles - - current Walker-appointed PSC chairman Phil Montgomery is a former ALEC legislator of the year, and State Sen. Leah Vukmir, (R-Wauwatosa), a current ALEC board officer embroiled in a lawsuit over communications with the group.