I just read the Maine Voices column on solar power, written by Barbara Alexander, former director of the Consumer Assistance Division of the Maine Public Utilities Commission. She claims your recent editorial of Sept. 18 was “based on incorrect facts and . . . did not examine the real issue with net metering.”

I felt your editorial was one of the clearest articles I have read about this issue. I am a person who owns a solar array and uses net metering. I paid upfront for that array. A partial federal credit for my installation is available to me and I will take advantage of it. I currently receive credit (no money) for excess electricity I generate. That excess energy goes to the grid and is used by other electric customers. During times when my array does not generate all the electricity I need, I can access the credits I have accumulated for up to a year. I lose those credits if I have not used them within a year of when they were generated. Even during months in which I generate all the power I use, I pay delivery charges to my power company.

My electricity is generated by a renewable resource that does not pollute our environment. These are my facts. I don’t see how I am being “subsidized by lower-incomed customers,” as claimed in the Oct. 2 article. In fact, it appears to me that all electric customers are subsidizing the construction of large electric plants that depend on fossil fuels and emit many pollutants into our atmosphere.

Electric companies need to look more closely at how they do business, because things need to change. I know there will be losses in this process, but an opportunity exists to access cleaner power that doesn’t rape our world in the making. There is only one truth here. Let’s stop approaching the issue with information that is manipulated to divide groups and distort the facts.

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