But the solar industry has argued that net metering is needed to encourage use of rooftop solar and reduce the emissions responsible for climate change.
“If passed as is, the C.P.U.C.’s proposal would protect utility monopolies and boost their profits, while making solar less affordable and delaying the goal of 100 percent clean energy,” said Bernadette Del Chiaro, executive director of the California Solar and Storage Association.
Although the latest proposal would drastically reduce the value of solar energy credits, a nonprofit organization that is funded by California’s utilities, Affordable Clean Energy for All, said it did not go far enough.
“It is extremely disappointing that under this proposal, low-income families and all customers without solar will continue to pay a hidden tax on their electricity bills to subsidize rooftop solar for mostly wealthier Californians,” said Kathy Fairbanks, a spokeswoman for the group.
Early this year, the commission put aside a December proposal to change net metering after the solar industry and homeowners said it would greatly reduce the use of rooftop solar panels in the state. That proposal would have also imposed new monthly fees on the utility bills of rooftop solar homes, a provision that is not in the proposal introduced on Thursday.
Utility companies and their allies, which on this issue have included the Utility Reform Network and the Natural Resources Defense Council, strongly endorsed the first proposal.
Months after that proposal was scrapped, President Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act in August, giving both the solar industry and utilities more government support.
The law, along with an earlier bipartisan infrastructure law, offers hundreds of billions of dollars in incentives to energy companies to build large power plants, solar and wind farms, and transmission lines. The Inflation Reduction Act also expands and extends federal tax credits for individuals to buy rooftop solar systems, home batteries and electric cars.
