Hundreds of solar workers, consumers, clean energy advocates, community leaders, conservationists and climate activists will rally on Thursday, June 2, to protest the California Public Utilities Commission’s (CPUC) latest proposal to tax rooftop solar and drastically reduce the credits consumers receive for selling their solar energy back to the grid. Solar supporters will hold simultaneous actions in Los Angeles and at the CPUC headquarters in San Francisco.
In San Francisco hundreds of solar supporters are expected to line up at the CPUC headquarters to deliver public comments. In Los Angeles, solar supporters will give “public comments” on stage to a mock dais of CPUC commissioners, while thousands of attendees record their own video testimonials to submit to the CPUC. Combined, Thursday’s actions are expected to be the largest ever submission of live and video-recorded public comments in CPUC history.
NEM 3.0 is not on the CPUC’s agenda for Thursday, but this will be the commission’s first hearing since the details of the May revision were released.
According to ROTH Capital Partners, the CPUC is now accepting comments regarding the glide path approach, non-bypassable charges and community DERs. The CPUC is seeking input on an alternative glide path that would give customers a fixed export adder in addition to the avoided cost calculator (ACC) rate. The export adder would step down over time. Opening comments in response to the group’s questions are due by June 10.
The CPUC had previously proposed a similar steep tax on rooftop solar and an immediate gutting of the credits of solar consumers. The proposed decision was shelved for an indefinite amount of time earlier this year after intense backlash and public disapproval from Governor Newsom. CALSSA says the CPUC’s recent ruling to reopen its net energy metering procedures seems again to be pursuing a tax, this time hidden and under a different name.
News item from Save California Solar
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