California, don't kill rooftop solar at the behest of big utilities

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Rooftop solar supporters hold signs during a Don't Tax the Sun rally outside the Southern California Edison building in Cathedral City, Calif., on Wednesday, July 20, 2022. Californians in opposition to the California Public Utilities Commission's plan to tax residential solar users and cut their credits for producing solar energy by 80% will be holding rallies all over California this week.

For years, California has been aggressive in promoting residential solar, but now, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) may try to use the Inflation Reduction Act as an excuse to pass their Solar Tax and slash the net metering credit, saying the federal renewal of the solar tax credit will cushion the blow.

The CPUC solar campaign will harm California, by costing residential solar homes more than $14,000 over the 20-year lifetime of an average solar investment. (The renewed federal tax credit is around $7,000.) When you add the CPUC's proposal to slash the net metering credit by 80%, this will make solar installation too expensive for most customers.

In 2016, when the Nevada PUC imposed a similar solar tax and cuts to the net metering credit, the Nevada solar market collapsed and did not recover until Nevada walked back its action.

The large utility companies (PG&E, SDG&E and SoCal Edison) are using the CPUC to try to kill rooftop solar. Why has Gov. Newsom still not acknowledged that we need to encourage rooftop solar to meet our climate goals? Please, call or write to Gov. Newsom and urge him to support residential solar. Don't tax the sun!

Susan St. Louis, Rancho Mirage

The United States of dystopia

We have just experienced a timidly led Department of Justice dubiously invoke the Espionage Act to raid an ex-president's home for documents.  The FBI, still branded with its false narrative of Russian collusion in the 2016 election, conducted this unprecedented raid and search.  

Under the guise of reducing near-record inflation, a partisan congress passed counterintuitive legislation increasing both spending and taxes. Meanwhile, masses of illegal migrants continue to cross our broken southern border severely impacting our resources, while crime continues to increase.

Watching all of this is a weak and seemingly oblivious and ineffective president, and an ex-president unwilling to yield to new conservative leadership.

Our once-great country is heading in the wrong direction. We are on a precipice dangerously gazing into an abyss, and China and our adversaries are all smiles.

We need new leadership and a new direction to return us to the great country we use to be, and hopefully still can and will be.

George Batavick, La Quinta

This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: California, don't kill rooftop solar at behest of big utilities