Controversial Solar Bill Would End Benefits To California Home Owners

A controversial bill that would change benefits for homeowners with rooftop solar could be up for reconsideration, reports KGTV.

The bill intentionally failed to get enough votes to pass the State Assembly on Wednesday, June 2.

The bill would reform net metering, which is how solar owners get money back from utilities for selling excess energy back to the grid, reports KGTV.

San Diego Assemblymember Lorenza Gonzalez, the bill's author, says subsidizing solar owners is unfair because it raises rates on everyone else.

“There’s a profound inequity happening here," said Matthew Freedman, an attorney for the non-profit The Utility Reform Network. "If it was the utility shareholders paying, I would be all for it. But it’s other customers. It’s renters subsidizing homeowners. It’s like a reverse Robin Hood problem that we have.”

However, solar advocates and environmental groups think people should be encouraged to invest in solar energy.

“This is about killing rooftop solar so the utilities can have additional profit," Tara Hammond, a solar energy and climate change advocate, told KGTV. "We should be incentivizing rooftop solar. We should be making solar more accessible to renters, to communities of concern."

Photo: Getty Images