Renewable Energy Vermont, the solar energy industry lobby group, is out with a press release urging the legislature to pass a bill, H.320, to require the utilities to buy more of their product.

According to the group, “a strong Renewable Energy Standard would prioritize the development of new renewable resources that truly reduce greenhouse gas emissions throughout Vermont and the rest of New England. It would fix the fundamental flaw in the 2015 Renewable Energy Standard – an overreliance on existing renewables that failed to reduce regional carbon pollution. H.320 would do just that by requiring Vermont utilities to get 60% of their power from new renewables while getting Vermont to a 100% renewable energy future.”

The future the group envisions is one where everything runs on electricity, and all of that electricity is generated by solar farms and wind farms, mainly the former. This may seem ridiculous, and it is, when you consider that in Vermont solar electricity can only be produced about 35% of the time, and the other 65% of the time somebody has to build billions of dollars’ worth of storage, mainly from gigantic inefficient batteries.

Renewable Energy Vermont argues that failing to require the utilities to buy more of their product also Perpetuates Environmental Injustice. If that’s their concern, we should be building new modular nuclear plants, but that wouldn't enrich the renewable energy lobby that’s getting rich on government-rigged deals.