“NO” on AB-1139 – “Utilities are threatened by solar panels because it cuts into their profits. Tell your legislator to stop their profit grab.
(from Indivisible CA Green Team) Consumers suffer when power is concentrated in the hands of a few. This was the lesson learned from the 2000 electricity crisis and out of that grew California’s commitment to consumer solar and localized energy.
Over the past two decades, hundreds of thousands of Californians have invested in rooftop solar to combat climate change, lower energy bills, and invest in local communities. Working class communities have embraced it as a no-brainer solution to wildfires, blackouts, and rate increases. The state encouraged these investments via policies like net metering, which allows more Californians to afford rooftop solar by letting them share their extra energy with their neighbors for a bill credit.
However, investor-owned utilities like P,G&E are threatened by this people-centered movement as it cuts at their profits. In 2018 alone, rooftop solar and energy efficiency prompted the state to scale back more than 20 power line projects, saving $2.6 billion. Maximizing rooftop solar could save American households nearly $500 billion over the next thirty years, while doubling down on our overreliance on long-distance power lines could cost Americans $350 billion.
So our energy utilities, best known for gross mismanagement, costly investments, and an insatiable appetite for increasing profits, are pushing AB 1139, a legislative bludgeon which would not only kill rooftop solar for low and middle-class households by gutting net metering, but also by retroactively changing the rules on the one million homes and businesses who invested in solar roofs over the past fifteen years, ruining those investments. These corporations want to add $50-86 monthly solar fees, while lowering the financial value of the rooftop solar energy exported to the grid by more than 80%.
Everyone in California deserves to have access to clean, safe, affordable and environmentally sustainable energy. There is no question that continuing to grow community-based rooftop solar and energy storage is key to this future. The utilities have an enormous amount of power in the Legislature. We’re really worried that the bill will pass. We have to stop it, or risk screwing up all of the clean energy goals California has been fighting for.
Make sure your CA legislators know exactly how you feel about this.
Minimal script: I’m calling from [zip code] and I want Assemblymember/Senator [___] to support low and medium income homeowners and CA’s solar future by voting “NO” on AB-1139.
Contacts:
- State Senator Monique Limón (SD-19): SAC (916) 651-4019, SB (805) 965-0862, OX (805)988-1940 email
- State Assemblymember Steve Bennett (CA-37): SAC (916) 319-2037, SB (805) 564-1649, VTA (805) 641-3700 email
- Not your people?: findyourrep.legislature.ca.gov.
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