In Utah, utility interest Rocky Mountain Power attempted to amend an existing bill to include an assault on net metering in the state.

Senator Curtis Bramble, a former Board member and ALEC legislator of the year, co-sponsored the bill and spoke about the effort at ALEC’s meeting in Kansas City in May 2014.

After pushback from solar industry groups and other advocates, the bill, SB 208, was changed to a study bill that would look at the value of distributed solar to the grid, instead of gutting the net metering policy. But, the amended bill allowed the utility to propose additional charges for solar customers to the public utilities commission.

It was passed through the both chambers of the state legislature and was signed by Governor Gary Herbert.

Rocky Mountain Power recently included a “Net Metering Facilities Charge” of $4.25 per month in a rate case before the Utah Public Service Commission (PSC). At the time of publication, the PSC had not yet considered the proposal to charge solar customers the monthly fee.