Tell your state legislators to support rooftop solar
We need California's leaders to keep rooftop solar growing.
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April 9, 2024
Re: Support for AB 2256 (Friedman): the true value of rooftop solar
We as the undersigned write in enthusiastic support of Assembly Bill 2256 (Friedman).
We have the power to harness abundant renewable energy from the sun by installing solar panels on California’s rooftops. While we lead the nation in rooftop solar capacity, we’ve only taken advantage of 10% of the state’s rooftop solar potential so far. Rooftop solar energy is essential to helping California meet its goal of generating 100% clean electricity by 2045.
Despite steady rooftop solar growth, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) slashed the state’s successful rooftop solar incentive program, Net Energy Metering (NEM), which caused the bottom to fall out of the rooftop solar market starting in 2023. New rooftop solar installations plummeted by 80% and the solar industry experienced significant job losses.
NEM created robust incentives for rooftop solar and allowed California to reach Governor Schwarzenegger’s million solar roofs initiative, a significant step towards meeting California’s 2020 climate goals under AB 32. Four years later, California achieved its second million solar roofs milestone with the help of the NEM incentive. Now, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) has projected that we need to double the amount of rooftop solar energy in California to allow us to meet our climate targets by 2045. However, California is now at risk of losing a valuable tool to tackle the climate emergency.
The benefits of local rooftop solar generation include significant societal benefits, including: improved local air quality by displacing gas plants in environmental justice communities; increased resilience to extreme weather and power outages; local economic benefits (including rooftop solar installation jobs); and avoided land use impacts by decreasing the need for utility transmission infrastructure—which also keeps electricity bills down.
The CPUC gutted the NEM program in 2022 by omitting these important environmental and societal benefits of rooftop solar, leading to a drastically lower compensation rate for electricity that solar panel owners supply to the grid. AB 2256 would fix this problem and get us back on track to achieve our next climate targets by requiring the CPUC to consider the true value of rooftop solar, including its societal benefits.
Sincerely,
Steven King, Environment California
Roger Lin, Center for Biological Diversity
Bill Allayaud, Environmental Working Group
Jenn Engstrom, CALPIRG
Gregory Stevens, California Interfaith Power and Light
Glen Brand, Solar United Neighbors
Yvonne Elkin, Indivisible Resistance San Diego
Jose Torre-Bueno, Center for Community Energy
Susan Morgan, Indivisible Marin
Emily Brandt, San Joaquin Valley Democratic Club
Carly Rixham, American Solar Energy Society
Magi Amma, The Climate Alliance of Santa Cruz County
RL Miller, Climate Hawks Vote
Michael J. Painter, Californians for Western Wilderness
Pauline Seales, Santa Cruz Climate Action Network
Marian Sedio, North County Climate Change Alliance
David Diaz, Active San Gabriel Valley
Laura Neish, 350 Bay Area Action
Ronni Solman, SoCal 350 Climate Action
Maryam Dallawar, Sunrise Movement Orange County
Shoshana Wechsler, Sunflower Alliance
Jim Lindburg, Friends Committee on Legislation of California
Regina Banks, Lutheran Office of Public Policy-California
Cheryl Auger, Ban SUP (Single Use Plastic)
Suzanne Hume, CleanEarth4Kids.org
Johanna Speiser, Fridays for Future Orange County
Daniel Chandler, 350 Humboldt
Leah Redwood, Extinction Rebellion San Francisco Bay Area
Joan Gallagher, West LA Democratic Club
Woody Hastings, The Climate Center
Miriam Casey, Episcopal Diocese of Northern California
Kitty Adams, Adopt a Charger, Inc.
Katie Huffling, Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments
Derede Arthur, UC Santa Cruz Climate Coalition
Ector Olivares, Catholic Charities of Stockton
Andrea Leon-Grossmann, Vote Solar
Jan Dietrick, 350 Ventura County Climate Hub
Fran Pavley, USC Schwarzenegger Institute
Bart Ziegler, Samuel Lawrence Foundation
Alan Weiner, 350 Conejo / San Fernando Valley
Francisco Moreno-Castillo, COFEM- Consejo de Federaciones Mexicanas
Jessica Tovar, Local Clean Energy Alliance
Tom Wheeler, Environmental Protection Information Center (EPIC)
Karinna Gonzalez, Hammond Climate Solutions Foundation
Todd Weber, Elders Climate Action (ECA) Northern California (NorCal) Chapter
Richard Burke, Elders Climate Action (ECA) Southern California (SoCal) Chapter
Catalina Gonzalez, Center for Progressive Reform
Susan George, Progressive Zionists of California
Clara Castronovo, CALPIRG Students
Crystal Huang, People Power Solar Cooperative
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