If you’re off the grid, you’re a freeloader. So says the American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC. The influential conservative group is pushing legislation across the country to weaken clean energy initiatives and penalize individuals who generate their own power.

ALEC says people who generate their own solar or wind power are freeloaders who should pay power companies for the right to send excess electricity into the grid. The group’s efforts have been successful in Arizona. Starting last month, homeowners who install solar panels have to pay their power company five dollars a month in fees. That’s actually less than the hundred dollars a month the industry was angling for.

PRP