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The Utility Reform Network (TURN) has worked for 50 years as California’s best-known ratepayer advocate. Despite their laudable efforts, California’s electricity system is broken, with some of the highest electricity rates in the nation.
TURN helps the utilities attack rooftop solar.
The root cause of California’s skyrocketing electricity rates is clear: out-of-control utility spending. Instead of honing in on this problem, TURN has sided with the utilities in scapegoating rooftop solar.
- They have been a leading proponent of the lie that rooftop solar is to blame for rising electricity bills.
- They led the effort to gut the state’s net metering program, charge a Solar Tax, and undermine protections for existing solar users. They were so close with the utilities on this issue, that SDG&E referred to them as their “surrogate“.
- They supported the $24/month Utility Tax that would be three times the national average and increase electricity bills on millions of working people and seniors living in apartments, condos, and small homes.
TURN is barking up the wrong tree. The real reason rates are skyrocketing is out-of-control utility spending, not rooftop solar.
The real reason rates are skyrocketing is clear: out-of-control utility spending on transmission and distribution.
- 92% of rate hikes since 2014 are a direct result of utility spending increases on poles and wires.
- Spending on poles and wires has skyrocketed, increasing by more than 300% since 2002 even though peak electricity demand has been flat.
- Utilities are incentivized to overspend for one big reason: the government guarantees them an 8-10% profit on every dollar they spend on new power lines.
- The utilities are in turn reporting record profits, and rates keep rising to match.
Rooftop solar saved all ratepayers $1.49 billion in 2024 alone.
A new study by energy economist Dr. Richard McCann unpacked the cost shift claim piece by piece, and found it riddled with incorrect numbers and omissions. When those issues were corrected, it showed that rooftop solar saved all ratepayers $1.49 billion in 2024 alone.
TURN repeats utility lies about rooftop solar that were cooked up by conflicted sources.
The rooftop solar “cost shift” argument was created in 2012 by a national utility industry trade group as part of a larger strategy to squash rooftop solar. (See leaked 2012 Edison Electric Institute (EEI) documents obtained by Utility Secrets).
Moreover, the evidence that TURN uses to justify its rooftop solar position is from sources that are highly suspect:
- One of them is the utility consulting firm E3. The CPUC hired E3 to do the rooftop solar cost / benefit analysis. E3’s client list contains thirty-two investor owned utilities including PG&E, SDG&E, and SoCal Edison.
- The other is the Public Advocates Office (PAO), an arm of the CPUC, led by an appointee of Gov. Newsom. Both PAO and the CPUC have been faulted by the State Auditor for failing to adequately scrutinize the utilities spending.
It’s really unfortunate when an independent nonprofit like TURN chooses to rely on data from captured and conflicted sources.
The anti-solar argument is like saying rates are going up when people turn off their lights.
Beyond math, there’s common sense. Rates don’t go up when people make their own electricity from solar panels. That’s like saying rates go up when people turn off their lights or their AC. Buying less electricity from the utility does not cause rates to go up. To say otherwise is to assert that the public is obligated to buy from the utility whether they need it or not.
TURN is out of step with hundreds of NGOs, cities, and schools
TURN’s position on rooftop solar is out of step with the state’s leading consumer advocacy organizations like Consumer Watchdog and CALPIRG, environmental justice and immigrant rights leaders, over 600 environmental groups, cities, schools and businesses, and over 130,000 members of the public.
Utilities and regulators need a scapegoat, so it makes sense why they are going after rooftop solar.
Regulators have had plenty of chances to step in over the last two decades to block the utilities’ out-of-control spending. Instead, the regulators and politicians who appoint them were asleep at the switch.
So it’s obvious why the CPUC, Public Advocate, and utilities work together to scapegoat rooftop solar. They need a distraction from their abject failure to deliver a workable electricity system.
But when TURN goes after rooftop solar, they play right into the utilities’ hands. And end up attacking working and middle class ratepayers in the process.
We assume TURN is just as frustrated as we are about California’s broken electricity system. But that should be all the more reason to double down on going after the root cause of the problem—out-of-control utility spending on long-distance power lines.
Perpetuating the utility lie about rooftop solar only helps the utilities deflect attention away from the root cause of high rates and lets regulators off the hook for their failures.
It’s also odd for TURN to attack their own constituency. 60% of California’s two million solar users are working and middle class, and half are people of color. These are everyday people desperately seeking relief from the high rates that TURN has been unable to rein in.
Is TURN still committed to solving the root cause of the problem?
TURN’s inability to achieve its mission after 50 years of trying is perhaps why they are chasing red herrings such as rooftop solar. TURN’s gloomy outlook was reflected at a recent hearing on the bill to restore the right of schools and renters to benefit from rooftop solar. TURN joined PG&E to oppose the bill.
At the hearing, a number of lawmakers pushed back on the “cost-shift” claim and put the blame for rising rates on utility overspending.
TURN’s Renewables Attorney responded by saying: [1]
“Utilities get a fixed revenue requirement. They get a lock in on how much money they can collect. And when you see customer load drop off, what happens is that the amount of money the utility collects doesn’t change, but everybody has to kick in more on a usage basis to solve for that number…We are interested in alternatives that would reduce utility profits, and change their incentives around over-building infrastructure. But, we have the system that we have today. Unless that changes, we’re stuck with the rules that are in place as of now.”
Is this the mentality we should expect from a group whose middle name is “Utility Reform”?
The pessimism expressed here is startling. TURN is essentially admitting defeat. They are saying that we can’t do a thing about utility overspending. We must force customers to pay the utility whether they need to or not, and feed the broken system until such a day (that may never come) when we can change things.
TURN took a half a million dollars from the CPUC to campaign against rooftop solar. This helps explain their position.
We suspect that TURN’s outlook is colored by its primary funding source—ratepayer dollars through the state’s “intervenor compensation” program. This program is administered by the CPUC, which has the power to decide who gets the money and who doesn’t.
For example, TURN received $590,000 from the CPUC as “compensation” for it’s two year efforts to lobby to kill the state’s net metering program.
In other words, the captured regulator controls TURN’s purse strings. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out how that would affect TURN.
Instead of scapegoating rooftop solar, let’s work together to rein in the real problem: out-of-control utility spending
Bottom line: TURN is a good organization on many issues, but they are barking up the wrong tree with respect to rooftop solar, and undermining their mission and credibility in the process.
For the good of all Californians, it’s time to rein in out of control utility spending. California needs to meet growing demand for electricity while reducing the cost of transmission and distribution. It’s the only way out of this mess, and rooftop solar and batteries are an important way to get there.
Instead of attacking consumers who are part of the solution, we ask TURN to work with us to get rooftop solar growing again, and work together to solve the real problem: out of control utility spending.
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[1] Testimony of Matthew Freedman, Renewables Attorney at the Asm. Utilities and Energy Committee Hearing on July 1st, 2024. Full hearing video.
