The stranglehold that investor-owned utilities have on the Public Utilities Commission must end. Investor-owned Southern California Edison and other companies have done everything they can to end residential rooftop solar in California. They answer to their investors, not their ratepayers.
They have changed the reimbursement rate structure, changed “peak hours” and generally made it economically unfeasible for homeowners to have rooftop solar. For those of us in the desert, air conditioning is not a luxury. It is a life-or-death necessity.
Summer rates are higher, while our use, especially in this long “heat wave” has skyrocketed. Edison changed their peak rates in 2019 to be later in the day, after the sun is setting, thereby reducing the financial benefits of rooftop solar and increasing utility rates for after sunset. This has now forced rooftop solar to require battery backup thereby vastly increasing the cost.
These changes have adversely impacted rooftop solar providers and resulted in a significant loss of jobs. We must ask Gov. Newsom – if California is to go “green,” why allow the investor-owned utilities to continue this stranglehold? Investor-owned utilities should no longer profit on the backs of ratepayers who use air conditioning to survive.
Yet again, Rep. shows us how wrong he is representing the desert communities. In case you missed it, the National Endowment for the Humanities, a federal agency, was again threatened with deep cuts in its annua.