The issue from the Utility's POV is that they are being forced to "buy" power at a retail price rather than a wholesale price.

In their view...Why should they be forced to pay a homeowner 10 cents a KWH when the nuke plant down the street produces higher quality and more reliable power at 3 cents a KWH.

But when it comes to net metering (ie where the meter is allowed to run backward) that is exactly what happens. They sell the power to the customer at retail price and then if and when (and that is a big if and a big when) the customer produces more power than he uses, they buy the power at retail prices.

Its like if you were to grow tomatoes in your back yard and then have legislation passed that forced the grocery store to buy your tomatoes at full retail prices.

I'm all for conservation and a decentralized power grid but, the utilities do have some valid points.