Seth A. Richardson

srichardson@rgj.com

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders played to a smaller crowd than usual Saturday when he met with a group of 25 solar workers and their families in Nevada.

The senator met with solar workers for about 15 minutes before attending a short rally for a few hundred supporters. He said the Public Utilities Commission's decision to approve cutting the rate NVEnergy pays to customers who use solar panels and generate excess power into the grid - which lead to statewide layoffs - was “exactly the wrong decision.”

“It is beyond my comprehension that a state which has as much solar exposure, I think, as any state in the country - this should be a leading industry here. You should be leading America – you should be leading the world in encouraging people to move toward solar panels.”

A move to solar and other renewable energy platforms was a “moral responsibility” to protect the earth for future generations, he said.

“We’re playing for the future of this planet. That’s what we’re playing for,” he said. “Solar is an important part of the future sustainable energy. And together we are going to make that happen. For those of you that have lost your jobs, it’s just incomprehensible to me that this state would make that decision.”

Sanders said a fossil fuel industry focused on profits instead of what is right for the country was one of the leading contributors to the slow growth of renewable energy. He recommended moving to on-bill financing – a loan repaid via the savings on electric bills – as a way to encourage growth in the industry.

Allen “Eli” Smith, an electrical service manager with Black Rock Solar in Reno, said before the event that Great Basin Solar Exchange, a collective of solar workers and companies, contacted all the candidates. Sanders was the only one who contacted them back, he said.

Smith asked Sanders what people could do to try and combat the system, to which the Vermont senator recommended a grassroots solution: contacting Berkshire Hathaway owner Warren Buffett en masse. Berkshire Hathaway owns NVEnergy.

“This is a terrible, terrible decision. The ruling went exactly the wrong way,” he said. “So you might want to be thinking about writing a letter with a few hundred thousand signatures on it to Mr. Buffett and say, ‘You know what? What you’re doing here in Nevada is exactly wrong.’”