Lobbyists funded by Charles and David Koch want to punish homeowners for installing solar panels on their own roofs.
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Hypothetical conundrums
can provide valuable learning experiences for students of corporate management
and ethics.
Consider this one:
Suppose you’re a corporate chieftain who’s a free-enterprise fundamentalist,
despising government regulation, taxation, and intervention in the purity of
the holy marketplace. But — whoopsie daisy — suddenly a new competitor to your
old-line product pops up, and more and more of your customers are switching to
the alternative.
That’s the conundrum:
You’re being out-competed. What else can you do besides try to compete better?
This is no hypothetical
situation. It’s a real one faced by the Koch brothers, the fossil-fueled duo. They
feel threatened by the steady increase in the number of middle-class families
installing solar panels on the roofs of their own homes.
Not only is this free,
non-polluting sun power slashing families’ utility bills, but families can also
make money from this investment in climate solutions.
Today’s efficient solar
cells can produce more electricity than a home needs, and 43 states allow these
rooftop energy producers to sell their excess production back
to the grid. It’s free enterprise at its most free-and-enterprising
best.
Naturally, the Kochs
and the utility monopolies hate this trend.
That’s why these
old-power behemoths are tossing their libertarian purity overboard and sending
their lobbyists across country: to demand that state governments intervene in
the marketplace to stop these pesky rooftop competitors from, uh, competing in
the energy marketplace.
Their hypocrisy doesn’t
stop there. They also want states to tax solar-powered homeowners to punish
them for becoming innovative energy producers with some independence from their
local utilities.
It sure isn’t the
American way. But it is a page from the corporate playbook. As the comedian
Lily Tomlin says, “No matter how cynical you get, it’s almost impossible to
keep up.”
OtherWords columnist Jim Hightower is a radio commentator,
writer, and public speaker. He’s also editor of the populist newsletter, The
Hightower Lowdown. OtherWords.org
