California is poised to kill rooftop solar, damaging climate and health
By Mark Z. Jacobson, opinion contributor — 01/14/22 01:30 PM EST
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The California Public Utilities Commission is poised to kill off much of the rooftop solar photovoltaic (PV) industry in California, which will result in the use of more polluting natural gas and biomass electricity as well as dirty electricity imported from out of state. The use of the new dirty electricity will raise air pollution death rates in California above the 12,000 per year who perish in the state already. Most of these additional deaths will be in poor communities in the Los Angeles basin and Central Valley, where pollution levels are already the highest in the state.
Roof PV should be encouraged to reduce natural gas and overhead wires
The effort to end rooftop solar is through an esoteric rule called Net Metering 3.0. This rule, pushed by the utilities, supported by only a few groups — and opposed by the vast majority of environmental groups — appears to be a back-door effort to get middle- and working-class homeowners to pay the damage costs of explosions, blowouts and fire damage caused by the utilities themselves. These incidents include, among others,
https://thehill.com/opinion/energy-environment/589774-california-is-poised-to-kill-rooftop-solar-damaging-climate-and
