While AB 1139, the bill pushed by Representative Lorena Gonzalez that would have effectively gutted rooftop solar power in California has failed, the California Public Utilities Commission has taken up the fight.
This Thursday - June 24, 2021 - CPUC officials plan to vote on a new method to calculate the value of rooftop solar power generation. The method was concocted by a consulting firm routinely hired by utility companies to produce reports favorable for large solar and wind farms. The new method of computing the value of rooftop solar could justify the utility companies' proposal to hit homeowners and businesses with rooftop solar power generation with monthly fees while cutting the credit for power generated and shared.
The CPUC is, of course, planning to vote on this controversial new method without any meaningful opportunity for public discussion and comment.
The new method won't only impact homeowners with solar, but also businesses that have adopted rooftop solar, as well as all the companies that install residential and business rooftop solar power equipment. The method under review by the CPUC assumes that numerous utility-scale projects will be constructed across the desert by 2025 - so many that the value of power generated by rooftop solar will become negligible. Mojave Watch objects to this method of reasoning by the utilities that destroying the desert is far more preferable than putting solar panels on homes and businesses, and the loss of permanent jobs across our region that would result by the adoption of this method of miscalculating the value of rooftop solar.
If you can, please comment by June 22, 2021. You can add a public comment: HERE.
To take action, please sign this petition to Governor Newsom and the CPUC HERE.
For more information: HERE.
CPUC Agenda: HERE.