This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Health & Fitness

California Utilities Get Their Stories Crossed

As I highlighted earlier this week in a post on California Majority Report, recently, it’s been difficult for California’s investor-owned utilities to keep their stories straight on the impact of California’s “net energy metering” policy. Gary Stern of Southern California Edison acknowledged in US News and World Report that expansion of distributed solar generation results in “less need for new transmission lines.”  Meanwhile, David Rubin of PG&E told KQED that “solar customers really use the grid more intensively than non-solar customers.” Only one of them can be right, so which is it?

Well, a study conducted earlier this year by Crossborder Energy found that net metering will benefit California’s ratepayers by more than $92 million a year. Major utilities in California — and across the United States — have been trying to eliminate net metering in order to protect their monopoly business models, which rely on ratepayers connecting to a centralized grid. But with popularity of rooftop solar at an all-time high, these utilities also recognize the need to play both sides of the issue with the public. Hence the contradictory statements from Stern and Rubin.

But the benefits of net metering and rooftop solar go far beyond simply saving consumers money. These and other sustainable energy options can also have an impact on our health, environment, and economy. That’s why the Co-Chair of Californians Against Utilities Stopping Solar Energy (CAUSE) has joined with the American Lung Association, Presente.org, California Environmental Justice Alliance (CEJA), and other leading public health, clean air, environmental justice, and solar industry groups to petition the California Energy Commission (CEC) to conduct a study of these impacts.

The requested study would analyze the following factors:

  • Local and statewide job growth;
  • Increased economic activity and tax revenues for local governments;
  • Lower wholesale market prices for electricity due to decreased demand;
  • Improved grid security and reduced economic costs from power outages;
  • Improved air quality through reduced need for fossil fuel power generation;
  • Reduced death and disease associated with fossil fuel power generation; and
  • Reduced greenhouse gas emissions.
This study cannot come soon enough for Dr. Luis Pacheco, Medical Director of the Transitional Care Unit at California Hospital Medical Center and CAUSE Co-Chair. “By driving the expansion of rooftop solar, net metering helps improve the quality of the air we breathe while creating jobs in our communities,” Pacheco said.  “These were key considerations when net metering was adopted, and should be included in an assessment of the policy’s overall effectiveness.”

Whether or not the CEC agrees with Pacheco and his co-signers has yet to be seen.
We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?