That's definitely true but it seems the current structure gives the state very little oversight power. I have always thought of CPUC as an organization of well meaning folks but yet PG&E has been allowed to be so negligent over so long to get to the present sorry state of affairs that I wonder if CPUC/state can do much under the current structure.
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California Utilities Plan All Out War On Solar, Please Read And Help
- Thread starter gene
- Start date
That's definitely true but it seems the current structure gives the state very little oversight power. I have always thought of CPUC as an organization of well meaning folks but yet PG&E has been allowed to be so negligent over so long to get to the present sorry state of affairs that I wonder if CPUC/state can do much under the current structure.
AB1139 will be voted on very soon. Even if you are not from California this can spread to your state as well, please allow your voice to be heard. Use this link:
solarrights.org
"
A utility-backed proposal to kill rooftop solar in California was just approved by a panel of powerful state lawmakers and may be voted on by the end of the month. Details are below. I strongly urge you to send a message right now to your state Assemblymember, and to consider taking additional actions to ensure your representative stands up for you.
Assembly Bill 1139 (Gonzales) would negate your current solar investment in the next one to ten years, and block most others from getting solar. The legislation will:
Tell your representative: Stop the Utility Profit Grab
There's something else you should know. Lobbyists for PG&E, SDG&E and SoCal Edison are telling Sacramento politicians that your solar is the reason why utility bills are skyrocketing. Utilities are threatened by your solar because it cuts into their profits. So they're making up lies to justify killing your solar, even though it is the solution to rising utility bills, power outages and wildfires.
Your Assemblymember is getting pressured hard by utilities to vote for this bill. They need to hear your voice. Please send them a message right now.After you send the message, we will provide several additional actions you can take.
Thank you for considering this request!
-- Dave Rosenfeld, Executive Director
P.S. Here's the link to a fact sheet on AB 1139. It was approved unanimously by the Assembly Committee on Utilities and the Environment on 4/21 and is now being considered by the Assembly Committee on Appropriations.
P.P.S. The author of this bill, Assembly member Lorena Gonzales says she’s concerned about equity and making sure low income ratepayers get help from rising energy bills. We care about that goal too. But her bill would harm existing low-income solar users and kill the market going forward - just when recent studies show that just under 50% of solar adopters live in working and middle class neighborhoods.
Solar Rights Alliance
302 Washington St
# 150-5062
San Diego, CA 92103
United States
Please consider a donation to Solar Rights Alliance.
Stop the Utility Profit Grab to Kill Rooftop Solar (AB 1139)
A utility-backed bill to kill rooftop solar in California may be voted on by the end of this month. Will you send your rep a message to vote no? #UtilityPowerGrab #SaveSolar
solarrights.org
"
A utility-backed proposal to kill rooftop solar in California was just approved by a panel of powerful state lawmakers and may be voted on by the end of the month. Details are below. I strongly urge you to send a message right now to your state Assemblymember, and to consider taking additional actions to ensure your representative stands up for you.
Assembly Bill 1139 (Gonzales) would negate your current solar investment in the next one to ten years, and block most others from getting solar. The legislation will:
- Force you to pay a new monthly fee of $50 to $90 per month - just for having solar.
- Slash the utility bill credit for your extra solar energy by 88% - from an average of twenty-five cents per kilowatt hour to just three cents.
Tell your representative: Stop the Utility Profit Grab
There's something else you should know. Lobbyists for PG&E, SDG&E and SoCal Edison are telling Sacramento politicians that your solar is the reason why utility bills are skyrocketing. Utilities are threatened by your solar because it cuts into their profits. So they're making up lies to justify killing your solar, even though it is the solution to rising utility bills, power outages and wildfires.
Your Assemblymember is getting pressured hard by utilities to vote for this bill. They need to hear your voice. Please send them a message right now.After you send the message, we will provide several additional actions you can take.
Thank you for considering this request!
-- Dave Rosenfeld, Executive Director
P.S. Here's the link to a fact sheet on AB 1139. It was approved unanimously by the Assembly Committee on Utilities and the Environment on 4/21 and is now being considered by the Assembly Committee on Appropriations.
P.P.S. The author of this bill, Assembly member Lorena Gonzales says she’s concerned about equity and making sure low income ratepayers get help from rising energy bills. We care about that goal too. But her bill would harm existing low-income solar users and kill the market going forward - just when recent studies show that just under 50% of solar adopters live in working and middle class neighborhoods.
Solar Rights Alliance
302 Washington St
# 150-5062
San Diego, CA 92103
United States
Please consider a donation to Solar Rights Alliance.
FlatSix911
Porsche 918 Hybrid
Signed the petition... thanks for posting.AB1139 will be voted on very soon. Even if you are not from California this can spread to your state as well, please allow your voice to be heard. Use this link:
Stop the Utility Profit Grab to Kill Rooftop Solar (AB 1139)
A utility-backed bill to kill rooftop solar in California may be voted on by the end of this month. Will you send your rep a message to vote no? #UtilityPowerGrab #SaveSolar
"
A utility-backed proposal to kill rooftop solar in California was just approved by a panel of powerful state lawmakers and may be voted on by the end of the month. Details are below. I strongly urge you to send a message right now to your state Assemblymember, and to consider taking additional actions to ensure your representative stands up for you.
Assembly Bill 1139 (Gonzales) would negate your current solar investment in the next one to ten years, and block most others from getting solar. The legislation will:
We're calling AB 1139 "The Utility Profit Grab". Will you speak out against it?
- Force you to pay a new monthly fee of $50 to $90 per month - just for having solar.
- Slash the utility bill credit for your extra solar energy by 88% - from an average of twenty-five cents per kilowatt hour to just three cents.
Tell your representative: Stop the Utility Profit Grab
There's something else you should know. Lobbyists for PG&E, SDG&E and SoCal Edison are telling Sacramento politicians that your solar is the reason why utility bills are skyrocketing. Utilities are threatened by your solar because it cuts into their profits. So they're making up lies to justify killing your solar, even though it is the solution to rising utility bills, power outages and wildfires.
Your Assemblymember is getting pressured hard by utilities to vote for this bill. They need to hear your voice. Please send them a message right now.After you send the message, we will provide several additional actions you can take.
Thank you for considering this request!
-- Dave Rosenfeld, Executive Director
P.S. Here's the link to a fact sheet on AB 1139. It was approved unanimously by the Assembly Committee on Utilities and the Environment on 4/21 and is now being considered by the Assembly Committee on Appropriations.
P.P.S. The author of this bill, Assembly member Lorena Gonzales says she’s concerned about equity and making sure low income ratepayers get help from rising energy bills. We care about that goal too. But her bill would harm existing low-income solar users and kill the market going forward - just when recent studies show that just under 50% of solar adopters live in working and middle class neighborhoods.
Solar Rights Alliance
302 Washington St
# 150-5062
San Diego, CA 92103
United States
Please consider a donation to Solar Rights Alliance.
Do you know how they're coming up with this $50 to $90? The latest language says "(4) Has interconnection fees and monthly fixed charges based on the cost to interconnect and serve the eligible customer-generator." But I don't see anything that would suggest the fixed interconnection could grow to be $50 a month?
I'm still amazed at how quickly this thing is moving through committee and seems to have more broad support than it seems to deserve.
Contrast this bill to AB 2384. In 2020 this bill was proposed which would make employer contributions into health savings accounts non-taxable by the state of California. Employer HSA contributions are already tax exempt at the federal level and are tax exempt in 48 states. This bill would give most people like $400 of extra cash in their wallets and also help make employer HSA plans more reasonable to offer as a solution to expensive PPOs and EPOs. This didn't even get out of committee and died with like zero people giving two damns even though it'd potentially help hundreds of thousands of Californians that had HSAs with employer funding.
FlatSix911
Porsche 918 Hybrid
Yes, this really speaks to the current sad state of government affairs in California... no wonder people are leaving the state in droves.
Tax the rich has now become, Tax the middle class to support those who don't want to work... $50K/ year for federal+state unemployment.
Businesses cannot hire anyone to work in the service industry or local restaurants at $20/hour when unemployment benefits are $25/hr.
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SageBrush
REJECT Fascism
For how long can unemployment be collected outside of Covid related extensions ?
FlatSix911
Porsche 918 Hybrid
It varies from state to state... here is the California provision... Federal Provisions for Unemployment | California EDD
Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC) provides up to 53 additional weeks of payments if you've used all of your available UI benefits.
The first 13 weeks are available from March 29, 2020 to September 4, 2021.
I remember getting unemployment benefits (after a layoff) and it wss something like $250 per week (the maximum you could get), nowhere near $25 per hour... Looks like the maximum is now $450 per week, still a lot less than $25 per hour. And it depends on how much you earned before.
Anyway, getting really OT here.
Anyway, getting really OT here.
FlatSix911
Porsche 918 Hybrid
I understand, but (as far as I know) the amount would still be based on the income you had before getting unemployed. I think it's a bit misleading to suggest that everyone will get the maximum amount.
Not sure how we got here in a thread about the Utilities war on Solar.
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That would give the utility companies 12 years to figure out how to weasel a few more dollars out of your plan.
People don't read the report. They read the news articles that result from the report.
Here is a San Jose Mercury News article "Here’s why your electricity prices are high and soaring." ( Here’s why your electricity prices are high and soaring ) It says:
“When households adopt solar, they’re not paying their fair share,” Fowlie said. While solar users generate power that decreases their bills, they still rely on the state’s electric grid for much of their power consumption — without paying for its fixed costs like others do.
The real intent of the report is to generate the above propaganda. How many reader of the article would research Fowlie's report and come to the primary recommendation that you outlined? Maybe just a few rooftop solar owners.
I don't have any understanding of CPUC operation, but the optics aren't good. Please allow me to explain.
From the San Bruno explosion to the recent $2.1 billion fine, how would you grade (A - F) PG&E? I would say that PG&E gets an F grade. At the same time, PG&E executives are getting record pay, despite court conviction, record fine, lives killed, property damage, and huge drop in stock price. This is definitely a company that's out of control. Would you agree?
I understand that CPUC "regulate" PG&E and not "control" it. This means that CPUC cannot be held 100% responsible for PG&E's problems, but it's probably also not 0% responsible. This is what I mean by "optics," which is certainly different from inside than outside. To you, maybe it's an unfair "guilty by association." To us on the outside, it's really difficult to think otherwise.
Opinion: Californians deserve far better wildfire protection from PG&E points out 4 major problem areas: shoddy management, ineffective tree-trimming program, insufficient inspections, and grid upgrades in the wrong places. CPUC probably can't do anything about PG&E management. But what about the other 3 problem areas?
True but I am hoping CPUC/state do more due diligence than just what's published in the Mercury and alike.
Oh yeah baby! Click on the video and check out minute 38:15. 12k views, 252k subscriptions. KILL AB1139!
I hope for the same as you. However, the CPUC/state are political organizations. Over the weekend, I saw a news program interviewing Wyoming residents about Liz Cheney. One resident said that he voted for Cheney to represent the residents, not her conscience. That's why the utilities are spreading propaganda that rich solar owners are ripping off all the non-solar folks. They are hoping for enough idiots to shut down rooftop solar. Then the utilities will raise the rate on these idiots to pay for the solar that got shut down.
Criticism of the optics is fair, though we're certainly aware/mindful of that - we're not oblivious to public perception, especially since members of the public are not shy about lambasting the CPUC during public comments at our voting meetings every two weeks.
All that said, I think public perception of the CPUC and its handling of these issues can be very narrowly focused on what's immediately obvious - the power is out, the utility caused a wildfire, the gas line exploded - but the solutions to those problems are almost never narrow or simple. Every energy issue has to walk this fine line that addresses safety, greenhouse gas emissions, ratepayer fairness, keeping costs and rates down (i.e. customer affordability), feasibility, etc. It's a delicate balancing act that is REALLY difficult and underappreciated.
And, yes, I'll grant that I'm on the inside so I'm obviously biased, but we really do have a lot of smart people working on these problems and we're not ignoring the public - these issues are just really complicated.
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