Chairman Luke Messer Launches  Task Force For The American Worker 

CNBC’s Larry Kudlow, Mayor of La Porte, Indiana to testify at first hearing

WASHINGTON (Tuesday, April 11, 2017) — Rep. Luke Messer (IN-06), chair of the Republican Policy Committee, today announced the launch of the Task Force for the American Worker – an effort to examine challenges facing modern-day working Americans.

The Task Force for the American Worker will hold a series of hearings to examine workforce issues, including stagnant wages and a slow economic recovery, manufacturing, higher education costs, the opioid abuse epidemic, health care, retirement security and trade.  The Task Force will seek to find solutions that help address each of these challenges.

For generations, the American dream has meant that every American who works hard can find success. But in recent years, frozen paychecks, a tough job market and rising living costs make the American Dream too often seem out of reach,” Messer said. “During the 2016 election, Republicans promised a renewed focus on addressing these challenges and improving the lives of everyday working people. This Task Force is about making those promises a reality.”

 Messer announced the Task Force’s first hearing will be on Tuesday, April 25, with the goal of helping set a policy agenda for the modern American worker.

WHAT:           “An Agenda for the Modern American Worker” hearing

WHO:              Mr. Larry Kudlow, CNBC Senior Contributor, Founder/CEO of Kudlow &

Company, LLC

The Honorable Blair Milo, Mayor of the City of La Porte, IN

Mr. John Friedman, Associate Professor of Economics at Brown University

Mr. Jim Pethokoukis, Editor of AEIdeas and a DeWitt Wallace Fellow

WHEN:           Tuesday, April 25, 2017, 2PM

 WHERE:         Rayburn House Office Building 2360, Washington, D.C.

Legislature Approves Bill Curtailing Solar Panel Incentives

IL for www.theindianalawyer.com

A bill pushed by Indiana’s investor-owned utilities that would eliminate much of the financial incentive available to those who install solar panels is headed to Gov. Eric Holcomb’s desk after it was approved on Monday by the Legislature.

Republican State Sen. Brandt Hershman’s bill was given final passage when the Senate voted 37-11 to approve changes made to the measure in the House. Holcomb spokeswoman Stephanie Wilson declined to say if he will sign the bill into law, but she added that the Republican “has been watching the bill all session and will consider it carefully.”

Solar energy accounts for less than 1 percent of Indiana’s power. But utilities worry the plunging cost of solar panels, as well as its growing popularity, could someday cut into their profits. Utilities say that will eventually lead to higher rates for customers.

The measure also comes as utilities across the U.S. are looking to carve out their own share of the solar market. They are promoting an alternative to installing home solar panels called “community solar” that involves customers agreeing to buy or lease panels from the utilities on large panel farms.

Critics say it all adds up to an effort by the utilities to muscle out small companies, threatening the 1,500 jobs the Solar Foundation estimated in 2015 that the industry had created in Indiana.

At issue is a practice called “net metering,” which mandates that churches, businesses, schools and homeowners who install solar panels be compensated for any surplus energy they feed back onto the grid, unusually in the form of a credit on their power bill.

Hershman’s bill would drastically curtail in five years the current “retail” rate of compensation, bringing it closer in line with the wholesale cost utilities pay for energy. The bill would allow those who install solar panels before 2018 to continue to collect the current rate for 30 years, while those who purchase panels after that, but before 2022, could collect the rate until 2032.

Solar proponents say the current rate is needed to break even on an expensive investment. But Hershman, of Lafayette, says the rate of compensation should come down as the technology improves and it becomes easier to recoup costs.

“This bill recognizes that solar is becoming an increasingly competitive means of generation and that’s a great thing,” said Hershman. “It’s taking off on its own.”

Opponents, however, question the need for the bill, since current state law caps net metering once 1 percent of a utilities energy comes from an alternative energy source, like wind or solar.

Kerwin Olson, of left-leaning utility watchdog group, Citizens Action Coalition, called the bill’s passage “an all out affront on Hoosier consumers and relegates Indiana to the backwaters of innovation.”

Democrats objected to a provision in the bill which sets the new rate of compensation that will eventually be put in place. Rate setting should be done by the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission, said State Sen. Mark Stoops, of Bloomington, who noted that Hershman himself said the rate established by the bill was an “arbitrary” figure he picked.