California Rooftop Solar Faces Extinction!!

(12/2021) On December 13, a proceeding of the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) proposed the gutting of California’s Net Energy Metering policy, which has been responsible for the rapid growth of rooftop solar in the state. Outrageous as it is, this proposal came as no great surprise, as Governor Newsom’s CPUC has been giving the state’s monopoly utilities—PG&E in particular—everything else they’ve been asking for, from bankruptcy rescue, to rate hikes, to licenses to burn down our communities. And on a silver platter, to boot.

The proposed decision followed by only a few days the delivery on December 8 of over 120,000 letters to Governor Newsome demanding that he act to “Save California Solar.” On-site solar is under attack by the state’s utilities in an energy war against the people of California in which Newsom’s CPUC has been on the wrong side.

Please help flood Governor Newsom's office with calls demanding he side with our communities, not the state’s monopoly utilities: 916-445-2841 or message him here.

Most surprising to many is how draconian are CPUC’s proposed cuts in the state’s on-site solar program: not only eliminating any incentive, especially for residential utility customers, to install rooftop solar, but actually punishing the over one million solar customers who have already made that investment!

The Local Clean Energy Alliance and its sister organization, the California Alliance for Community Energy, have been actively fighting the utilities’ attacks on Net Metering—at both the legislature, in opposing the utility bill to kill on-site solar last June, and at the CPUC, in calling for an expansion of on-site solar, especially into low-income communities.

Help protest this proposed decision. Demand that Newsom and his CPUC Commissioners reverse course. Actions will be planned early in the new year, as the Commissioners are slated to vote on the proposal on January 27. Stay tuned.