In the so called Capitalist/Free market...

I have seen it before and and here is yet another example of why government/businesses pay only lip service to capitalism in America! A lot of times, they resort to lobbying and other means to control the market. I got to know about the news from social networking sites but here is the direct link to the news:

http://www.votesolar.org/state-initiatives/arizona.html

Excerpts from the site:
"Net Metering: The state currently has no net metering standards, so individual utilities are free to develop their own. This is a disastrous situation, and there is no better example than what Arizona Public Service, the state's largest utility, is trying to pull. In their latest rate case, APS filed for a net metering tariff that would be devastating to solar in their service territory. To begin with, APS's net metering proposal would cap installations at 10 kW. Fine for the residential market, but that pretty much eliminates commercial systems -- and larger systems are, on average, cheaper to install. But more insidiously, APS made the claim that customers installing solar systems deprives it, the utility, of "lost revenues" for which it deserves compensation. And to make up for it, it wanted to be paid about 6.7 cents for every kWh a customer-sited solar system generates. That's right. If you buy electricity from them, it'd cost you 11 cents a kWh. If you install solar and don't buy electricity from them, they would still get paid 6.7 cents. We've got together with some colleagues, hired a lawyer, and successfully fought APS's proposal. APS will offer net metering up to 100 kW for the time being."

Now don't get me started on AT&T/Comcast and others...