We need your calls today and Monday! CA should be a leader in rooftop solar and it should be affordable for everyone!
After our utilities and our CA Public Utility Commission colluded to tank our solar industry and eliminate 17,000 good jobs, a group of state lawmakers are proposing to get rooftop solar growing again while also protecting our right to make solar energy without taxes or penalties. The hearings on this are next week, Tuesday and Wednesday. The utilities are pulling out all stops to kill our important bills, especially AB 1999, the repeal of the utility tax.
Call your state assemblymember and senator to tell them to pass these bills and get rooftop solar growing again.
Minimal email/call script: I’m calling from [zip code] and I want Assemblymember/Senator [___] to get rooftop solar growing again this legislative session. Its is one of the best ways for people to control their energy bills, keep the lights on during emergencies and also meet the state’s clean energy goals. We need to make it easier, not harder, for people to get it. May I read you the list of bills to support? (Note: If Assemblymember Jacqui Irwin is your legislator, PLEASE tell her staff to pass on your thanks for AB 1999 and for being such a courageous leader!)
Here it is:
- (Assemblymembers:) AB 1305. AB 1999, AB 2054, [AB 2256], [AB 2619], and AB 3107
- (Senators:)[SB 938], and SB 1374
Additional script if you want it: I would also like the Assemblymember/Senator to consider creating a bill for our entire state to join the 49 million Americans in nearly 2,000 communities across the U.S. — including large cities like Los Angeles and Seattle, who rely on community-owned, not-for-profit electric utilities. We are tired of seeing obscene profits posted by our privately-owned utilities, and fighting their constant grasping for more user fees.
Contact:
- State Senator Monique Limón (SD-19): email, SAC (916) 651-4019, SB (805) 965-0862, OX (805)988-1940
- State Senator Henry Stern (SD-27): email, SAC (916) 651-4027, Calabasas (818) 876-3352
- State Assemblymember Steve Bennett: (CA-38): email, SAC (916) 319-2038, VTA (805) 485-4745
- State Assemblymember Jacqui Irwin: (CA-42): email, SAC (916) 319-2042, TO ((805) 370-0542
- Not your people? Which assemblymember/state senator is mine?: findyourrep.legislature.ca.gov.
Please call specially if your legislators are members are in the energy committee of the Senate and the Assembly.
| Assembly Utilities and Energy Committee | Senate Energy, Utilities, and Communications |
| Chair Cottie Petrie-Norris: 916-319-2073 Vice Chair Jim Patterson: 916-319-2008 Rebecca Bauer-Kahan: 916-319-2016 Philip Chen: 916-319-2059 Damon Connolly: 916-319-2012 Laura Friedman: 916-319-2044 Joe Patterson: 916-319-2005 Eloise Reyes: 916-319-2050 Miguel Santiago: 916-319-2054 Pilar Schiavo: 916-319-2040 Philip Ting: 916-319-2019 Greg Wallis: 916-319-2047 Jim Wood:916-319-2002 | Chair Steven Bradford: 916-651-4035 Vice Chair Brian Dahle: 916-651-4001 Angelique Ashby: 916-651-4008 Josh Becker: 916-651-4013 Anna Caballero: 916-651-4014 Bill Dodd: 916-651-4003 Maria Elena Durazo: 916-651-4026 Susan Eggman: 916-651-4005 Lena Gonzalez: 916-651-4033 Shannon Grove: 916-651-4012 Monique Limon: 916-651-4019 Dave Min: 916-651-4037 Josh Newman: 916-651-4029 Susan Rubio: 916-651-4022 Kelly Seyarto: 916-651-4032 Nancy Skinner: 916-651-4009 Henry Stern: 916-651-4027 Scott Wilk: 916-651-4027 |
Deeper Dive
Rooftop solar is on the ropes
- The CPUC needs a cleanout: Bowing to utility lobbying, the CA Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) recklessly gutted the state’s net metering rules in 2022 and 2023 and rooftop solar became less affordable for everyday people, schools, and farms.
- Job killer: The solar industry reports that sales are down by about 80% and nearly 17,000 solar jobs have been lost so far.
- Grifting: Utility spending rose 500% over the last 25 years, faster than the cost of household goods, even though peak electricity use has been basically flat. 60% of this spending was “self-approved” – a huge incentive to overspend when they make an 8-12% profit off all transmission & distribution (T&D) projects.
State legislators are pushing back with these bills!
Prevent any more harm to rooftop solar
- AB 1999 (Irwin) would stop the big Utility Tax by capping it at $10/month and prohibiting it from rising any faster than inflation.
- A year ago, California’s three big investor-owned electric power utilities – Pacific Gas & Electric, Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric – proposed new fixed charges on their residential customers that would vary by income. This is proving so unpopular, that it’s already been scrapped. The CPUC offered a less contentious proposal: a flat $24.15 per month fixed charge for most customers, lower $6 or $12 charges for low-income households, and lower overall rates tied to usage. That’s still too high.
Make rooftop solar affordable again for consumers
- AB 2619 (Connolly) would ban solar taxes and require the CPUC to revise their net metering decision to align with the state’s actual clean energy goals.
- SB 1374 (Becker) would restore owners’ own solar energy, a right that the state took away from these folks last year.
- AB 2256 (Friedman) would require the CPUC to include all the benefits of rooftop solar when deciding how much credit solar users get.
Reduce the influence that utilities have over the government – Seriously, WTH?
- AB 2054 (Bauer-Kahan) would ban former CPUC commissioners from being employed by the companies they regulate for ten years after their term ends.
- SB 938 (Min) would prohibit private utilities from lobbying with ratepayer funds. SERIOUSLY!!!
- Read here:
PG&E lobbying, Edison lobbying, San Diego Gas & Electric/Sempra Energy lobbying
“Virtual Power Plants” and solar as the “Official State Energy”
- AB 1305 (Stern) would require utilities to treat their customers with both solar and batteries as a “Virtual Power Plant”, and purchase the electricity from them in the same way they would a solar farm in the desert. This has the potential to reduce the need for giant solar farms and their expensive long-distance power lines. This could save ratepayers as much as $120 bilion over the next thirty years.
- AB 3107 (Connelly) Would exempt microgrids from the definition of an electrical corporation So we could have microgrids, a great local energy source that allows us to connect more than one system and keep power even when the major grid goes down.
Throw out the private-equity pirates!
Read this here:
INDIVISIBLE VENTURA 