AB 1139 action

Tell your legislators: Stop the Utility Profit Grab

A utility-backed proposal to kill rooftop solar in California was just approved by a panel of powerful lawmakers. AB 1139 would affect your current solar investment, block others from getting solar, raise your monthly bills, and slash the utility bill credit. Tell your legislator this must be stopped.

Dear Assemblymember & Senator (cc: Gov. Newsom),

AB 1139 (Gonzalez) is a utility-backed proposal to kill rooftop solar in California. It will harm the existing investments that over 1 million Californians have already made, and will block millions more from ever getting rooftop solar.

AB 1139 is based on utility misinformation. Don’t believe it.  The real “cost shift” is from wildfires, power outages and the long-distance transmission lines that cause them.

Rooftop solar reduces those costs and saves everyone money, but also cuts utility profits. That’s what this is all about. 

Consumers are watching and counting on you to take their side. AB1139 is a utility grab for more profits. Now, more than ever, you need to protect the public from power outages and high energy bills. The last thing you should do is attack rooftop solar.

As fires, power outages and punishing energy bills rip through California for yet another year, we need more rooftop solar and battery storage than ever.

But utilities are pushing a proposal, AB 1139, to kill rooftop solar in California. It makes no sense.

Rooftop solar is helping keep the lights on

The power outages would be worse without rooftop solar. During those hot summer days, California’s one million solar users reduce their burden on the grid, freeing up the utility’s energy for their neighbors. 

Rooftop solar gives people control over their utility bills

Rooftop solar is the best way to permanently free people from crushing energy bills. And, as the cost of solar continues to fall, more and more people of average or low means are choosing solar.

Rooftop solar saves everyone money

When people make their own solar energy, it reduces the cost of long-distance power lines. Yes, the ones that sparked wildfires, cause blackouts and are responsible for outrageous energy bills. That keeps bills lower for everyone, whether they have solar or not. 

Rooftop solar is reducing pollution - in a big way

California’s one million solar rooftops have already made enough clean energy to replace the equivalent of twenty fossil fuel power plants. 

We need more rooftop solar and battery storage!

Imagine California with not just one million solar rooftops, but three million solar rooftops. Imagine if batteries were so cheap that they were in most garages, charging up during the day, and keeping the lights on in the evening. 

Imagine these on single family homes, apartment buildings, schools and businesses in every corner of California. 

But utilities are threatened by your solar because it cuts into their profits. So they're pushing AB 1139.

AB 1139 will kill rooftop solar by establishing, as the default policy of the State of California: 

  •  A monthly fee estimated at $70/month for an average home solar system.
  • An 80% reduction in the credit given to solar users for surplus energy sent back to the grid.
  • End the state’s policy of protecting existing solar users’ investments for 20 years.

This is the wrong time to slow down on rooftop solar. Please join us in speaking out.

Contact Dave Rosenfeld at info@solarrights [dot] org to learn more. Thank you for getting involved!