I hope you’ll read my latest L.A. Times column — based on some breaking news from this afternoon — and let me know what you think. Here’s the top of the story:
>Just a few weeks after Gov. Gavin Newsom returned from a trip to China that he claimed was focused on tackling the climate crisis, his appointees back home voted to slash financial incentives for rooftop solar power — for the second time.
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>Thursday’s 5-0 vote by the California Public Utilities Commission will make solar panels less economically enticing for apartment dwellers, farmers, schools and strip malls, solar companies say. The commission approved similarly dramatic solar incentive cuts for single-family homes in December — a decision the industry says has prompted a steep drop-off in sales.
>
>It’s a disappointing turn of events, especially considering how much value we’ve gotten from rooftop solar so far.
>
>California has more than 1.8 million solar systems at homes and businesses. They generate about 11% of the state’s electricity, helping limit our combustion of the fossil fuels destabilizing Earth’s climate and filling the air with deadly chemicals.
>
>But critics insist the costs of those solar panels are beginning to outweigh the benefits.
>
>Incentive payments to homes with solar, they say, have led to higher electricity rates for everyone else — including families that can’t afford rooftop panels. If so, that’s not only unfair, it’s damaging to the state’s climate progress. Higher electricity rates make it less likely that people will drive electric cars and install electric heat pumps in their homes — crucial climate solutions.
>
>The solar industry disputes the argument that solar incentive payments are driving up rates, as do many environmental activists. But Newsom’s appointees to the Public Utilities Commission are convinced, as they made clear Thursday.
>
>“We need to reach our [climate] goals as fast as we can,” said Alice Reynolds, the commission’s president. “But we also need to be extremely thoughtful about how we reach our climate change goals in the most cost-effective manner.”
If you want to get my columns in your inbox twice a week — along with roundups of climate and environment news from around the American West — you can sign up here: [latimes.com/boilingpoint](https://latimes.com/boilingpoint). Thank you for reading!
Nothing new here. Appeals to emotion around climate change and appeals to cost effectiveness of different options.
2 comments
I hope you’ll read my latest L.A. Times column — based on some breaking news from this afternoon — and let me know what you think. Here’s the top of the story:
>Just a few weeks after Gov. Gavin Newsom returned from a trip to China that he claimed was focused on tackling the climate crisis, his appointees back home voted to slash financial incentives for rooftop solar power — for the second time.
>
>Thursday’s 5-0 vote by the California Public Utilities Commission will make solar panels less economically enticing for apartment dwellers, farmers, schools and strip malls, solar companies say. The commission approved similarly dramatic solar incentive cuts for single-family homes in December — a decision the industry says has prompted a steep drop-off in sales.
>
>It’s a disappointing turn of events, especially considering how much value we’ve gotten from rooftop solar so far.
>
>California has more than 1.8 million solar systems at homes and businesses. They generate about 11% of the state’s electricity, helping limit our combustion of the fossil fuels destabilizing Earth’s climate and filling the air with deadly chemicals.
>
>But critics insist the costs of those solar panels are beginning to outweigh the benefits.
>
>Incentive payments to homes with solar, they say, have led to higher electricity rates for everyone else — including families that can’t afford rooftop panels. If so, that’s not only unfair, it’s damaging to the state’s climate progress. Higher electricity rates make it less likely that people will drive electric cars and install electric heat pumps in their homes — crucial climate solutions.
>
>The solar industry disputes the argument that solar incentive payments are driving up rates, as do many environmental activists. But Newsom’s appointees to the Public Utilities Commission are convinced, as they made clear Thursday.
>
>“We need to reach our [climate] goals as fast as we can,” said Alice Reynolds, the commission’s president. “But we also need to be extremely thoughtful about how we reach our climate change goals in the most cost-effective manner.”
If you want to get my columns in your inbox twice a week — along with roundups of climate and environment news from around the American West — you can sign up here: [latimes.com/boilingpoint](https://latimes.com/boilingpoint). Thank you for reading!
Nothing new here. Appeals to emotion around climate change and appeals to cost effectiveness of different options.