Meredith Turk

Anti-corruption protests in Bucharest take off as Romanians get political

Meredith Turk December 17, 2013

BUCHAREST, Romania — At least a thousand people took to the streets of Bucharest on Sunday night to protest a series of amendments to the criminal code passed in secret earlier last week, which reduces criminal consequences for politicians and eliminates public investigation of their crimes.

Government watchdogs believe the changes to the code "shield elected officials from corruption prosecution" by giving officials the option of instead replacing lost funds and paying a criminal fine.

"In other words," said activist group Transparency International Romania, "the grand corrupt will be able to buy their freedom."

The amendments also recriminalize "defamation" — which had been decriminalized in 2006 — which the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) said could "stifle debate and be used to protect public officials from criticism. Fear of criminal charges might lead to self-censorship and can ultimately have a chilling effect on investigative journalism." 

The United States, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Germany and European Commission have all criticized the recent amendments to the criminal code, according to a Romanian national news agency and an official press release from the US government.

What started as static protests in Bucharest’s University Square, quickly turned more aggressive as protesters marched to Palatul Victoria, the seat of the Romanian government. Hundreds of riot police, sometimes three deep, armed with batons and gas, formed barricades as protesters attempted to reach the government building.

Police officers broke protesters into groups and blockaded their march to the government building. After breaking through the lines of riot police, demonstrators moved against traffic through standstill cars, many which honked in solidarity, and continued almost 2 kilometers to the government headquarters.

Protests in Romania have grown in frequency, happening every Sunday night for the past several months since September 1, when more than 20,000 people came out against theRosia Montana project. Many Romanians said these kinds of protests are out of character for this country, even considering the 1989 fall of the communist regime.

But these rallies seem different, demonstrators said.

"We are young and old we are leftish and rightish, there are monarchists, there are atheists, there are Orthodox people, there are people working for corporations, there are all kinds of people," said Claudia Apostol, an activist who spent almost a decade fighting the Rosia Montana gold mining project. "This touched all of them. It went beyond ideology and immediate interest."

Apostol said she never missed a Sunday protest and brought her daughter with her often because everyone brought kids and families to the assemblies.

Organizers have taken to Facebook to track the numbers planning to attend the demonstrations, but while over 4,000 people confirmed their attendance for this weekend, far fewer actually showed.

"We have a problem now using Facebook as an organizing method because people easily click but the they don't show up," said Alexandru Alexe, a self-professed civil rights activist. "They fool themselves into thinking this is some sort of online solidarity."

Some campaigners have described Romania’s activist culture as “lazy,” saying this, paired with below-freezing temperatures and a heavy fog, is the reason for lower-than-expected turnouts.

Still, a few dozen activists gathered Saturday to paint banners for the Sunday protest in the basement of a crumbling World War I-era mansion, Carol 53, which now serves as a cultural gathering space.

Alin State, an actor in Bucharest, said he wanted to make a sign with the Banksy image of a man throwing a bouquet of flowers inspired by the Romanian revolution.

State said he dedicates his time to helping the protests as best as he can.

"I don't want to be an activist, but I want kids, and I don't want them to grow up in a world like this so I will keep coming as long as they need me," he said.

Popularity Of Solar Rebates Pushes Program’s Limits

By Meredith Turk November 22, 2013

Ameren Missouri’s solar rebates are expected to last through the end of the year, thanks to a ruling by state regulators, but Kansas City Power and Light this week reached its limit on solar rebates in the surrounding rural areas.

Vaughn Prost, the CEO of Missouri Solar Applications in Jefferson City and a board member of the Missouri Solar Industry Association, said the rebate allowance set for Ameren by the Public Service Commission is OK for now, although Prost said it was less than expected. They said the industry will have to fight hard for rebate funding during the General Assembly session that begins in January.

An agreement reached last week between Ameren, the PSC and solar industry representatives established a $92 million cap on solar energy rebates in Ameren’s service area. As of Oct. 31, Ameren had paid almost $22 million in solar rebates and was processing another $20 million worth, leaving about $50 million to pay out. Ameren lawyer Wendy Tatro told commissioners that the remaining funds “should get us into 2015,” according to a St. Louis Post-Dispatch report.

In September, Ameren asked the PSC for permission to suspend payment of solar rebates, which proved to be more popular than anticipated. The public utility company claimed it was reaching what’s known as the 1 percent rate impact. Under the renewable energy policy previously negotiated between Ameren and the PSC, rebates paid by the utility must not raise the cost of providing electricity to a service area by more than 1 percent.

Several proponents of renewable energy and solar companies disagreed with Ameren’s request to suspend solar rebates.

Brightergy, a solar company based in Kansas City, the Missouri Solar Industry Association andRenew Missouri all filed testimonies that there was “insufficient accurate and reliable information for Ameren Missouri” to calculate the 1 percent impact.

Prost said Ameren would have to pay out about $300 million in rebates to have that level of impact on rates.

The signed agreement, however, does not establish how the 1 percent rate impact will be calculated. Prost said one question remains unanswered: How much of the rebate pool of money will be allocated to wind energy projects before the rate impact level is reached?

The $92 million cap set by the PSC is only for Ameren’s solar rebates, so other rebates could go towards renewable energy projects from its service area using wind power.

Prost said this is an unfair breakdown of rebates. He argued more rebates should be dedicated to an industry that he said actually contributes to the state’s overall economy.

“We are actually creating solar energy in Missouri,” he said. “And that translates into jobs and economic development for Missouri. Utility companies are mainly buying their wind energy from outside of Missouri like Kansas, Illinois and Iowa.”

Missouri’s solar energy industry has grown since 2008, when voters passed Proposition C, which required public utilities to get 15 percent of their power from renewable energy sources by 2010. Of the 15 percent, at least 2 percent must come from solar power.

The Missouri Solar Industry Association doesn’t track the total number of solar panels installed in Missouri. But it reported that employment among its members has more than doubled since 2011, from 150 to 350 this year. In 2010, Missouri had 1,205 jobs in the solar photovoltaics industry, the sixth-highest in the country, according to a 2011 Brookings Institution report.

Since Kansas City Power & Light started the rebates, more than 750 rooftop solar systems have been constructed in the region, and there are now at least 10 solar companies doing business in Kansas City, according to Renew Missouri, a renewable energy advocacy organization.

Prost started his company in Missouri after working for decades in California’s solar industry. He has been pleased with the growth of the solar industry market in Missouri, but thinks that it could grow faster with higher rebate levels.

Aside from this particular agreement with Ameren, solar rebates are drying up in other regions of Missouri.

In an email to solar stakeholders, KCP&L wrote, “We have received more than enough solar applications over the past few days that have caused us to exceed the $50 million solar rebate limit for the KCP&L Greater Missouri Operations Company (GMO) service territory.”

KCP&L also wrote it is almost halfway to reaching solar rebate limits in its other Missouri service territory. The utility has received more than $18 million in solar rebate applications currently for that area, and its rebate cap is $36.5 million.