The Utility Reform Network (TURN) has been an advocate for ratepayers, lobbying the CPUC to keep utility bills low. TURN’s fight has been an uphill battle, as California’s crazy high electricity bills indicate. But TURN certainly gets an E for effort.
Unfortunately, TURN is now using their reputation to attack rooftop solar, using the same arguments as the utilities. They supported the CPUC’s proposed decision to impose a solar tax and slash the credit solar users receive for sharing their extra energy with the community. They supported the CPUC proposal to reduce protections for existing solar users. They were so close with the utilities on this issue, that SDG&E referred to them as their “surrogate” in a recent news story. Now they are also supporting a $30/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 uses utility-invented arguments to vilify rooftop solar
TURN has latched onto the utilities’ argument that rooftop solar is responsible for unsustainable electricity prices. For example, here are some of TURN’s campaign materials, annotated by us. They are misrepresenting the facts but more importantly, they are deflecting attention away from the real cause of high electricity bills—out of control utility spending.
The real reason electricity bills are so high is out-of-control utility spending
TURN should know better that out-of-control utility spending, not rooftop solar, is the real reason for ridiculously high electricity bills. This chart showing SoCal Edison’s spending helps illustrate what’s going on:
Source: Richard McCann: Historic SCE Retail Rate Components: 1998-2023, February 2024, CAISO load line removed for clarity (full presentation)
Utilities get a guaranteed 8-12% profit from every dollar they spend on this infrastructure, automatically collected from ratepayers. This a perverse incentive, and the root of the problem. (See p. 26 of this CPUC report for substantiation)
Regulators have been asleep at the switch for twenty years
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.
We assume TURN is just as frustrated as we are about that fact. But that should be all the more reason to double down on going after the real cause of the problem—out-of-control utility spending. That means building less transmission and distribution, and at a lower cost per unit. That’s not an easy solution to implement while ensuring that the grid remains reliable. But it is possible and more importantly, it is the only way out of this mess.
Instead, TURN is going after everyday consumers who are a part of the solution, while also promoting non-solutions like the Utility Tax that simply rearrange who pays for a broken system.
TURN repeats anti-solar utility arguments cooked up by a utility consulting firm
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 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. E3’s work is riddled with problematic and cherry picked assumptions that grossly distort the truth about rooftop solar, which we itemize in this white paper.
It’s bad enough that the CPUC uses a utility consulting firm to do its math on rooftop solar, which is an obvious conflict of interest. It’s really unfortunate when an independent nonprofit like TURN chooses to rely on that conflicted data.
Rooftop solar saves all ratepayers money
Consider these data points:
- In 2018, the CA Independent Systems Operator scaled back $2.6 billion of transmission and distribution because of rooftop solar and energy efficiency. Economists estimate that solar roofs save everyone an additional $3 billion every year in avoided generation costs.
- A 2021 in-depth analysis by Vibrant Clean Energy modeling found that scaling up both utility-scale renewables and rooftop solar could be $120 billion cheaper over 30 years than utility-scale alone.
- The Protect Our Communities Foundation has shown how rooftop solar and batteries could have eliminated or reduced the cost of several major T&D projects and saved ratepayers billions of dollars.
TURN appears to believe that there is no consequence to killing off rooftop solar
TURN’s Matt Freedman debated rooftop solar with former California Environmental Protection Agency Terry Tamminen (who helped design the Million Solar Roofs Initiative under former Gov. Arnold Schwartzeneggar).
The entire debate is worth a listen, but the very end reveals TURN’s worldview in a nutshell. At the 48:18 mark, the interviewer asked TURN’s Freedman:
Are you concerned that the current proposal as purported by the CPUC won’t achieve any of the goals that you’ve talked about, and what it would do it plummet the rate of new solar installations?
His answer, edited for length:
As a general matter, we think that the proposal by the PUC goes in the right direction…we’re going all the way to decarbonization in the state regardless of what happens with net metering.
That point of view doesn’t square with the state’s clean energy plan, which says all forms of renewable energy—including rooftop solar—must triple for California to reach its clean energy goals.
So TURN is incorrect to think that the state can meet its clean energy goals if rooftop solar flatlines.
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.
Instead of scapegoating rooftop solar, let’s work together to rein in the real problem: out-of-control utility spending
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.