Sacramento - The California Solar and Storage Association (CALSSA) released the following statement from Executive Director Bernadette Del Chiaro on today’s California Public Utilities Commission En Banc hearing on energy rates and costs:
Utility interests and the fossil fuel industry rushed to blame renewable energy for California’s August blackouts and Texas’s winter storm outages. Now as utilities like PG&E continue to hike electricity rates on consumers while struggling to provide a reliable source of power, they absurdly and inaccurately point the finger at renewable energy once again, this time rooftop solar.
Here’s what is really going on. Utilities in California have long been allowed to rig the system by pushing up infrastructure and transmission costs in order to generate tremendous profits and payouts to shareholders. As CPUC’s own report states “IOUs are inherently incentivized to make investments to drive an increase in their rate base and therefore, their profitability.” (see pg 24) That incentive led to $4.336 billion in transmission costs paid by California ratepayers in 2021, up 38 percent from 2016 statewide, and an astronomical 66% increase in PG&E alone.
It’s a raw deal for energy consumers who pay a substantial amount in their energy bill for costs that have nothing to do with actual energy rates, but it’s a profit rainmaker for utilities. CPUC’s report notes “conservative assumptions indicate that every dollar put into transmission rate base costs ratepayers in excess of $3.50 over the life of a transmission asset.” (see pg. 37) The utilities know it pays to sink money into the blackhole that is yesterday’s grid.
Now, with rooftop solar growing throughout the state and increasingly popular with low to middle income energy consumers due to successful programs like net metering, utilities want to stop any competition and secure the monopoly that allows them to keep treating ratepayers like a cash machine. At the same time, utilities promise a clean energy future they are unable to produce. In reality the growth of rooftop solar through net metering is the fastest way to get more clean energy on the grid and reduce transmission costs for the benefit of all ratepayers.
It’s time to stop blaming renewable energy for the utility and fossil fuel industries’ profit-driving rate hikes and failures.