A California state bill that would slash energy credits for rooftop solar panels is being backed by a former power company executive who’s now a lawmaker, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Assemblymember Lisa Calderon (D-Whittier) authored Assembly Bill 942, which the Times explains would “limit the current [solar panel] program’s benefits to 10 years — half the 20 year-period the state had told the rooftop owners they would receive.”
“The bill would also cancel the solar contracts if the home was sold,” the report adds.
Before her time in the Assembly, Calderon was an executive at Southern California Edison and its parent company, Edison International.
“She says the credits that rooftop owners receive when they send unused electricity to the grid is raising the bills of customers who don’t own the panels,” the Times says, though SCE and other large utilities in California “have long tried to reduce the energy credits that incentivized Californians to invest in the solar panels,” as the panels “have cut into the utilities’ sales of electricity.”
The nonprofit Vote Solar came out against AB 942, which they described as “a direct attack on California families who made long-term investments in solar with the promise of fair, 20-year Net Energy Metering agreements—guarantees that were clearly outlined in the state’s own consumer protection documents.”
“Changing the rules after the fact isn’t just unfair—it risks eroding public confidence in the integrity of California’s regulatory system,” Vote Solar said. “More than a million Californians signed contracts and state-issued guides in good faith, trusting that regulators would keep their word. Retroactively breaking those agreements would set a dangerous precedent for all consumer protections in California.”
A request for comment from Calderon’s office was not returned prior to publication.
