They weren’t duped. They were bribed.

You can have my solar panels after you pry my guns from my cold dead hands.

• charlton Heston

California’s latest attack on rooftop solar comes from AB942, which would retroactively break contracts with millions of solar consumers by cutting the compensation they receive from providing energy to the grid if their home is sold or transferred. Those with solar leases, who are predominantly lower income, will be forced to buy out those contracts when they sell.

Why would the state do that to solar users?

For the same reason they’ve spent the past several years trying to make it financially untenable for homeowners to add rooftop solar: Too many officials have bought a key utility company excuse for rising energy prices — solar “cost shift.”

I’m not a fan of him ascribing an action to “obviously it must be this reason” without any backup.

And yet California mandates that all new construction have solar panels.

Fuck the power companies. They need to be taken over by the government.

I don’t think the author of this article understands what he wrote about, or purposely omitting key things about grid balancing. The problem with rooftop solar incentives is they encourage solar production during the day when the sun is out, but do nothing when the sun settles. California has to switch to other types of energy such as batteries, natural gas plants, etc. for the evening. The grid is already saturated with energy during the day, even into negative prices. Utilities are paying into these rooftops, perhaps at retail prices, for something that does not address the energy gaps through the 24-hour timeline of power generation. In simple terms, California’s rooftop solar does not balance out the system over a timescale, with diminishing returns. At least, the article was stamped as an opinion piece, increasing the likelihood of it being a biased article that delves into conspiracy theories that California, and its regulated utility companies just want to screw people. There you go.