Three Bills in 2024 (and counting)

SACRAMENTO MUST PASS THESE BILLS TO LOWER INFLATIONARY ENERGY BILLS.

Energy companies convinced Governor Newsom, not that he needed much prompting, to raise our utility rates and taxes and now they are using our money to fight the bills coming out of Sacramento that seek to repeal those rates.

AB 1999 (Bauer-Kahan) reduces utility taxes and;
AB 2256 (Laura Friedman) alters rooftop solar utility rates and;
SB 938 (Dave Min) Utility companies are using our money to fund their lobbying practices to force higher rates on us. SB 938, will stop this practice by imposing stiff penalties on utilities that try to use ratepayer money for political purposes. SB 938 will imposes new reporting requirements on them.

 Let’s show elected officials that YOUR voice is what matters and you don’t want utilities to spend your money to pass bills you disagree with! Utilities don’t elected politicians; you do!

Take a moment and call and email your lawmaker and tell them to pass SB 938, AB 1999, and AB 2256 NOW! Remind them that you pull the election lever – not utilities. 

In San Francisco:
Senator Wiener: senator.wiener@senate.ca.gov
Assemblymember Ting: assemblymember.ting@assembly.ca.gov
Assemblymember: Haney:  Assemblymember.haney@assembly.ca.gov

California State Senators: https://www.senate.ca.gov/senators
California Assemblymembers:  https://www.assembly.ca.gov/

Thank you for demanding affordable power.
– The Alliance for Solar Choice

Some sample letters are here:
SB 938
AB 1999
AB 2256

A Progressive California Epiphany Over Soaring Electricity Rates

Editorial Board : wsj – excerpt

Democrats want to repeal the graduated income tax on electricity they passed two years ago.

Remember Nancy Pelosi’s famous line that Democrats had to pass ObamaCare to learn what was in it? Democrats in Sacramento are now having second thoughts about a law they passed two years ago that would effectively establish a second progressive income tax in California.

Democrats last week introduced legislation to repeal a 2022 budget bill that authorized the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) to restructure electricity rates by imposing a fixed charge on an income-graduated basis. The budget bill’s purpose was to reduce the state’s skyrocketing rates for lower-income people and shift utility costs to higher earners.

Average residential rates for investor-owned utility customers have surged by 72% to 127% over the past 10 years. About 2.5 million households are behind on their bills, averaging $733 in arrears...(more)

California introduces bill to assess rooftop solar net metering
By Ryan Kennedy : PVmagazine – excerpt

California Assembly member Laura Friedman has introduced a bill to require the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to consider the costs and benefits of rooftop solar and its non-energy benefits when designing net-metering rates.

California Assembly member Laura Friedman has introduced AB 2256, which would require the CPUC to fully consider the costs and benefits of rooftop solar when revisiting its net energy metering (NEM) tariff…

Save Solar coalition

Also this week, more than 60 organizations submitted letters to Governor Gavin Newsom, state legislative leaders, and the CPUC to call for immediate action to restore the state’s rooftop solar growth. The letter to the governor can be found here…(more)

This reminds me of the cigarette wars. We are getting the big energy lies about solar and other renewables because they feel threatened by loss of customers, but, the solar rooftop providers should be considered a primary energy source that can add to the grid, not a competitor.

RELATED: PG&E CEO has hopes bills will fall soon: Patricia Poppe, the utility’s top boss, said the utility is looking for ways to curb the surge in monthly bills. She said one way to do that is to do less vegetation management.

Tell the New York Times about about your electricity bill

New York Times is asking people to share their electricity bill with the paper to better inform their reporting. They say, “Are You Getting Sticker Shock From Your Electric Bills? We Want to Hear About It.”

Would you please be willing to tell the New York Times about the Utility Tax in California?

Here’s what you need to know:

• California’s Investor Owned Utilities (PG&E, SDG&E, and SCE) are trying to impose a Utility Tax on 12 million ratepayers.
• The current proposal includes a small fixed charge for low-income people, and a much larger one for everyone else. This means that nurses, teachers, and firefighters will pay the same new Utility Tax as someone like Mark Zuckerberg (or pick your billionaire).
• A single parent in an apartment with income just above the low-income CARE rate cutoff of $39,440 would be forced to pay $30 per month.
• A family of four living in a condo with an income just above the low-income FERA cutoff of $75,000 would be forced to pay $30 per month.

As the NYT asks: “What impact have high electric bills had on you?” Because bills seem to go up every year here in California, this is your opportunity to respond with information about the Utility Tax.

A few pieces of advice:

• Here’s a link to the New York Times Survey
• Make it personal. Use plain language, from the heart.
• Statistics are good, not required, and use only one. Here’s a fact sheet with more info.

Thank you for your help in pushing back against the monopoly utilities and their Utility Tax profit grab.

Sincerely,
The Alliance for Solar Choice

info

California Rooftop Solar Reckoning: Here’s How Much Demand Plunged

By Calmatters – excerpt

The state Public Utilities Commission in late 2022 slashed by about 75% the rate that utilities pay homeowners with new solar panels when they sell surplus power to the grid.

Weldon Kennedy and his wife make it their business to keep up with California’s fast-changing clean energy landscape. So when the climate-conscious couple began planning to add a solar system to the roof of their Oakland home, they took their time to talk to installers and shop around for the best deal.

But then, last spring, he heard that a neighbor had decided to accelerate their solar project. Other homeowners in the area were rushing to get in line, too.

“I don’t think I fully understood the scope of it, but I had people telling me, ‘You better get going, get your solar now,’” Kennedy said. “It seemed like a bunch of tomfoolery was coming down.”

Kennedy’s neighbors and other consumers were reacting to a profound policy shift in California: The state Public Utilities Commission in late 2022 slashed by about 75% the rate that utilities pay homeowners with new solar panels when they sell surplus power to the grid. The rate structure went into effect for solar applicants beginning last April.

The state’s decision has caused consumer demand for residential solar to plummet since the new rate took effect. Solar companies say they’ve been shoved to the edge of a cliff, forcing them to lay off workers or even shut down…(more)

Rooftop-solar industry blames PG&E, Newsom as Bay Area businesses struggle

By Ethan Baron : mercurynews – excerpt (includes audio track)

Planned rooftop solar installations plunge to 2014 levels

Bay Area rooftop-solar businesses are reeling from a statewide change that gutted compensation for homeowners returning surplus power to the electrical grid, causing applications for new solar to plunge to a 10-year low and leading to layoffs in an industry that had expected to lead the vanguard toward more sustainable, environmentally friendly energy use.

Owners of residential solar systems had been receiving enough utility credits to pay for most systems in seven years, industry representatives said, but for systems ordered after April 15, 2023, it will take 11 years. Residents with systems predating the change will continue to receive the same compensation.

“They clobbered the economics,” said Barry Cinnamon, owner of rooftop-solar company Cinnamon Energy Systems in Los Gatos.

Sales of rooftop-solar setups have plummeted about 80% since the commission shrank by 75% the compensation new solar owners get for surplus power, the California Solar & Storage Association said. The group estimated 2,700 jobs have been lost in the Bay Area, of 17,000 statewide. About two million California homes have solar, according to the association.

“So many businesses are struggling to keep their doors open,” said the association’s executive director Bernadette Del Chiaro. In lower-income areas of Northern California and the Central Valley, the effects are more severe than in the wealthier Bay Area, Del Chiaro said. Still, solar company owners in this region described major fallout.

Under the new formula, the average solar owner loses out on about $1,200 a year in savings, Del Chiaro said.

Cinnamon’s rooftop-solar sales fell more than 50%, he said, and many orders were for smaller systems. “Low- and middle-income people are really incapable of affording solar now,” Cinnamon said.

California households with median incomes of $50,000 to $100,000 have long had the highest rates of solar installation, although Bay Area solar adopters skew wealthier, according to Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory data…(more)

California reduces payments for rooftop solar power — for second time in a year

By Ben Christopher and Julie Cart : calmatters – excerpt

For more stories on inequality in California, sign up for Inequality Insights, a weekly must-read on one of California’s most pressing issues.

After months of debate and two postponed votes, California’s utility regulator unanimously voted today to overhaul incentives for owners of apartment buildings, schools and businesses that install solar panels.

The new regulations are the second major step that the California Public Utilities Commission has taken in the past year to reduce power companies’ financial support for rooftop solar. In December, the commission reduced payments to homeowners who sell excess power from newly installed solar panels on single-family homes…

Still, for solar advocates, it could have been worse.

Thanks to a last-minute regulatory tweak, the new rules today stop short of a previous proposal that solar industry groups and housing-related interests warned would result in the “evisceration” of the multifamily solar market…(more)

Column: California strikes another blow against rooftop solar

By Sammy Roth : latimes – excerpt

Just a few weeks after Gov. Gavin Newsom returned from a trip to China that he claimed was focused on tackling the climate crisis, his appointees back home voted to slash financial incentives for rooftop solar power — for the second time.

Thursday’s 5-0 vote by the California Public Utilities Commission will make solar panels less economically enticing for apartment dwellers, farmers, schools and strip malls, solar companies say. The commission approved similarly dramatic solar incentive cuts for single-family homes in December — a decision the industry says has prompted a steep drop-off in sales.

It’s a disappointing turn of events, especially considering how much value we’ve gotten from rooftop solar so far.

California has more than 1.8 million solar systems at homes and businesses. They generate about 11% of the state’s electricity, helping limit our combustion of the fossil fuels destabilizing Earth’s climate and filling the air with deadly chemicals.

But critics insist the costs of those solar panels are beginning to outweigh the benefits…(more)

The solar industry disputes the argument that solar incentive payments are driving up rates, as do many environmental activists. But Newsom’s appointees to the Public Utilities Commission are convinced, as they made clear Thursday… (more)

Thursday’s decision — which applies only to customers of Southern California Edison, Pacific Gas & Electric and San Diego Gas & Electric, and doesn’t affect utility customers who already have rooftop solar — is less detrimental to apartment renters and other prospective solar generators than an earlier proposal floated by the agency…

Renters will now be able to reduce or cancel out their utility payments when the sun is shining.

But in a holdover from the earlier plan, renters will be paid much less than they are today for electricity generated by their rooftop panels above and beyond what they and their neighbors use — electricity that is sent to the larger power grid, helping the rest of us keep the lights on. Solar companies say that change will lead to far fewer installations…(more)

More lies and insults to the people of California cannot be tolerated. Find a replacement for the state officials who are not protecting the public from the ravenous corporate greed that is outpacing our state economy. Take your daylight hours off the grid to cut your bills. If you can, buy solar and use it off the grid with battery backup. Find new candidates to run for office.

Over half of new cars on Bay Area roads are now electrified

By Kevin N. Hume : sfexaminer – excerpt (inlcudes audio)

The Bay Area has hit a major, electrifying milestone on the road to a gas-free future.

Half of all new vehicles registered in March in the Bay Area were electrified, meaning they were either battery-electric cars or gasoline-electric hybrids, according to S&P Global. That proportion bumped up to 53% in April.

With the new numbers, over 34% of cars on Bay Area roads are electric, which is more than four times greater than the national average of just over 7%. Additionally, almost 16% of Bay Area vehicles are hybrids.

The amount of EVs on the road varies depending the location around the Bay, and greater numbers can be seen in wealthier areas.

In cities such as Los Altos and Piedmont, 50% or more of newly registered cars are electrified, according to S&P Global. However, in some areas of San Ramon and Belmont, EVs made up less than 40% of new vehicle registrations.

Last year, 68% of registered Bay Area voters said they favor a rule by state regulators that would ban the sale of new gasoline-powered vehicles by 2035. In the same poll, 69% of voters said their next vehicle purchase would be a plug-in hybrid (42%) or an all-electric vehicle (27%)…(more)

A Bill Gates-based photovoltaic technology that may be solar energy’s future

by Tim Hornyak : msn – excerpt

• The majority of solar power generation is from conventional silicon-based panels made in China, a technology little-changed since silicon cells were discovered in the 1950s.
• Bill Gates’ Breakthrough Energy Ventures is among the investors betting that scientific knowledge gained from a mineral found roughly 200 years ago, perovskite, can lead to a new, more efficient leader in solar energy.
• The biggest U.S. solar company, First Solar, just acquired a perovskite tech player this week…(more)

The wind and solar power myth has finally been exposed

By Bryan Leyland : yahoo – excerpt

Many governments in the Western world have committed to “net zero” emissions of carbon in the near future. The US and UK both say they will deliver by 2050. It’s widely believed that wind and solar power can achieve this. This belief has led the US and British governments, among others, to promote and heavily subsidise wind and solar.

These plans have a single, fatal flaw: they are reliant on the pipe-dream that there is some affordable way to store surplus electricity at scale.

In the real world a wind farm’s output often drops below 10 per cent of its rated “capacity” for days at a time. Solar power disappears completely every night and drops by 50 per cent or more during cloudy days. “Capacity” being a largely meaningless figure for a wind or solar plant, about 3000 megawatts (MW) of wind and solar capacity is needed to replace a 1000 MW conventional power station in terms of energy over time: and in fact, as we shall see, the conventional power station or something very like it will still be needed frequently once the wind and solar are online.

The governments of countries with a considerable amount of wind and solar generation have developed an expectation that they can simply continue to build more until net zero is achieved. The reality is that many of them have kept the lights on only by using existing fossil fired stations as backup for periods of low wind and sun. This brings with it a new operating regime where stations that were designed to operate continuously have to follow unpredictable fluctuations in wind and solar power. As a result operating and maintenance costs have increased and many stations have had to be shut down.…(more)