Fearing voter backlash, California regulators will hold off issuing their proposed decision on a utility proposal to stifle the state’s rooftop solar program until after the November election, according to a Oct. 3 email bulletin from the San Diego-based nonprofit Solar Rights Alliance, citing credible sources.
“Californians deserve to know now what regulators are proposing for the future of rooftop solar in the state,” said EWG president and Bay Area resident Ken Cook. “So many vital decisions about the state’s energy are made behind closed doors, with regulators cozied up to corporate interests they’re supposed to regulate, it makes sense to worry that bad news for rooftop solar is coming after the election.”
“But that would be an affront to the tens of thousands of Californians who have fought so hard to save the solar program from the utility profit grab,” Cook said.
The CPUC was expected to announce a decision at the end of September in its long-running proceeding known as net metering 3.0. The commission has already postponed the decision once, following a public uproar against its initial, pro-utility proposal, which Gov. Gavin Newsom himself acknowledged last January needed revisions.
Pacific Gas & Electric and the state’s two other big investor-owned utilities are pressing regulators to impose steep new fees designed to curb the rooftop solar installations that have become wildly popular in the state and created an industry that now employs over 60,000 Californians.
Rooftop solar provides consumers with clean, cheap power and protection against utility blackouts that have become common in California. But the rooftop solar boom threatens to upend the utilities’ highly profitable monopoly control of the state’s electricity. And they have aggressively lobbied regulators and politicians to throttle the competitive threat of consumer-owned power generation.
The CPUC issued its original proposal to approve the utility-backed plan almost a year ago but quickly withdrew it after widespread outcry. At that time, tens of thousands of citizens, and the Solar Rights Alliance — made up of more than 600 environmental justice, clean energy and consumer watchdog advocacy groups — warned the plan would make solar unaffordable for working-class families.
The rooftop solar program is the only source of competition the big three investor-owned utilities face. Cook and EWG officially intervened in the proceeding before the CPUC in June 2021, urging regulators to reject the power companies’ proposal.
On October 11, the Solar Rights Alliance and other organizations will hold a rally at the steps of the state capital in Sacramento, calling on the CPUC and Newsom to reject the utilities’ plot.
News item from the Environmental Working Group
Way too much corruption between the state officials, CPUC and the monopolized utility companies.
Go off grid. It’s that simple
You Can’t
You can’t go off grid in you live in a city, I believe only if you live in an agriculturally zoned federal area. I may be wrong though.
– Luis Maya @ Solar Optimum
“only” an extra $20k on top of the cost of your solar install for a couple lithium batteries… it’s that $imple
Please make a decision one way or the other. With Bidens tax credits energy savings. Helps us plan energy climate change projects accordley.
There is a set time limit the CPUC has to make a decision. Why not be transparent about the time limit which was posted to be January 3, 2023 (approximate)? There must be a lot of stock investors involved when things are hidden.
That is because they govern and regulate the private utilities which are investor owned, so you know there is a lot of lobbying involved and possibly corruption within the CPUC even though they are meant to regulate on behalf the public.
– Luis Maya
Solar Consultant
This is an example of corruption. Why can’t the CPUC just be honest about informing the public? California is at the bottom of the list of states where it pays to get solar (#14). Other states assist solar customers a lot more than Ca. gov. does.
California has the most sun hours compared to the majority of the country, and our rates for energy are so high that solar makes a lot of sense, and aside from the federal incentive, the incentive in itself is in the price you pay for solar vs the utility.
– Luis Maya
Solar Consultant
Hi Kelsey
Thanks for keeping us up to speed re NEM 3 developments!
I have just signed up for solar but the company we selected is quite backed up.
Would you be able to estimate when the new NEM 3 will take effect assuming the CPUC announces a final decision in mid Nov?
Thanks
Dennis
You will have until March 2023 to be installed and active to be grandfathered into NEM 2.0
– Luis Maya
Solar Consultant
How can you say that? Since NEMS 3.0 hasn’t been approved yet, we don’t even know that there is any grandfathering for NEMS 2.0 customers. The utility companies certainly don’t want that grandfathering.
“On October 11, the Solar Rights Alliance and other organizations will hold a rally at the steps of the state capital in Sacramento, calling on the CPUC and Newsom to reject the utilities’ plot.”
In a nutshell, there is the bottom line. The utilities want their Net Billing, they want to abrogate previous Net Metering, PPAs with the electric utilities and foist Net Billing on everyone with a solar PV array on thier roofs. They also want to tax the sun with the “proposal” of solar PV adopters (need) to pay a fee each month to connect them to the “grid”. Folks could end up paying from $32/month to $120/month grid connection fee, something that (only) benefits the electric utility and ignores the avoided cost to the utility that is not weighted for solar PV adopters, who represent local distributed energy generation resources. We shall see if groups like EWG and Ken Cook are capable of getting their own PAC and charging the CPUC, the three major IOU electric utilities, the Governor, the Supermajority under the RICO statutes for their extortion and usury of the public trust.