“We are determined to speak TRUTH TO POWER. If the monopoly utilities cared about clean air, public health, and economic equity they would stop spreading lies about rooftop solar’s impact on working communities.”
Reverend Ambrose Carroll and Esperanza Vielma
The Utilities Lies
Net Energy Metering (NEM) is the policy that incentivizes the growth of rooftop solar. Simply put, NEM fairly compensates rooftop solar homes, businesses, churches, and schools for the excess energy they produce from their solar panels. In California, every rooftop owner pays a monthly fee to their respective utilities to stay connected to the electric grid.
Today, because of NEM, rooftop solar has become more affordable for working families who are putting solar panels on their roofs at record rates and saving money.
Now, the monopoly utilities are attempting to stop the growth of rooftop solar by trying to do away with the very policy that makes rooftop solar attractive to working communities: NEM. They have cynically spread a myth about rooftop solar called ‘cost shift.”
The ‘cost shift’ argument claims that non-rooftop solar customers, especially people of color, are actually paying the difference. The stance is simply not true and stands contrary to the principles of environmental justice and energy democracy.
The Solar Truth
The Sun Belongs to Everyone
The sun is a gift that nourishes all living things on Earth. Since the dawn of time, human beings have harnessed the sun for food, warmth, and play. For instance , ancient and indigenous communities, like the Egyptians and the Anasazi, used solar power to warm their homes.
Today, the technology of solar panels is letting people use the bounty of the sun to power their homes and businesses, schools, and places of worship. We sometimes call this rooftop solar. Sometimes it is also called local solar or consumer solar. But it's all the same idea–local people putting solar panels on top of local structures. so we can make clean energy in our community.
Working Communities Are Harnessing the Sun
In the past, rooftop solar was considered by many in the environmental justice movement out of reach for working and middle-class families. That’s no longer the case. Today, rooftop solar is seeing exceptional growth among working families, small businesses, and local schools. As much as 50% of new panels are being placed on the homes of working and middle class families. This is great news for the environment, for social equity, and for the budgets of working families.
Solar is empowering people to save money so they can spend it on other priorities, rather than making utility shareholders richer.
Solar is helping to clean up Our Planet and to shut down polluting power plants that harm our communities.
Solar is creating good-paying local jobs for working people.
Solar, when paired with batteries, helps keep the power on when the grid goes down.
Utilities Want to Own the Sun
Unfortunately, California utilities are trying to own the sun. They're lobbying our government to tax people for putting solar panels on their rooftops.
They are also lying to our elected officials, telling them that people-owned solar is bad for working-class communities. The utility ‘cost shift’ argument claims that non-rooftop solar customers, especially people of color, are paying more because of rooftop solar. The stance is simply not true and stands contrary to the principles of environmental justice and energy democracy.
What's really going on is that utilities are scapegoating rooftop solar to hide the fact the utilities have been harming our communities for decades.