We, the undersigned, demand that the California Public Utilities Commission reverse its secret war on solar power by voting against the proposed decision (for rulemaking proceeding R.20-08-0200), currently scheduled for November 16. If approved, this dangerous decision would take away the financial benefits for multifamily housing, schools, and farms to install on-site solar generation and energy storage.

Hundreds of community, climate, environmental and farm advocacy organizations, including Sierra Club, Climate Center, Vote Solar and numerous 350.org and Indivisible chapters, have signed a Solar Rights Alliance letter asking Governor Newsom to remind the CPUC Commissioners that he appointed that their job is to ensure that more renewable energy is deployed in California, not less.

The Solar Rights Alliance is urging Californians to call Governor Newsom at (916) 445-2841and urge his office to protect solar for renters, farmers, and schools.

David Chanin, co-founder of Futurefit Partners, was quoted in CalMatters “Under these new rules I have pretty serious concerns that entire building electrification projects just won’t pencil out anymore.”Bryan Clausen, a San Luis Obispo School Board Member testified how the proposed decision will impact whether solar is built at schools. “At schools, most of our energy consumption happens during daylight hours. […] As drafted, we would need to cancel our solar and battery programs because it would not be financially responsible for us to spend taxpayer money to deploy solar.”

What prevents this market-driven solution is California’s multi-billion dollar utility’s insistence that they have the right to monopolize nearly all profits from the sale of privately financed solar energy. 

The inconvenient truth is that the CPUC, established to regulate utility industries and be a watchdog for the public interest, has instead become a lapdog for the largest utility companies in the state.

A terrible example of this was last year’s ruling to dramatically reduce the amount of money paid to homeowners for the solar energy that they generate. The utilities used a utility industry playbook similar to the one fossil fuel companies used to discredit climate science.

As a result, California’s rooftop solar program, by far the nation's most successful, with 1.7 million installations, has been decimated so that the CPUC’s December 2022 “Net Energy Metering 3.0” ruling will cause new rooftop solar installs to fall by 40% in 2024.

It is time to incentivize not prevent our state from meeting our renewable energy goals. California must set a model for climate solutions not capitulate to utilities. 

That is why we also support the legislative goal of the Renewable Energy Acceleration Law of 2024 ballot initiative, which would allow small solar farms to sell low-cost, grid bypassing, solar power to neighbors. 

It is time for the CPUC to remember its mission by placing the public interest, not utility industry profits, first and foremost in their decision making process.