In a surprise maneuver late Tuesday, the California State Assembly passed a controversial bill to support utilities’ war on rooftop solar – posing a threat to home values and utility bills for millions of hardworking residents who invested in the clean energy source.
Assembly Bill 942 is authored by Assemblymember Lisa Calderon (D-Whittier), a former Southern California Edison executive. If enacted, it would break contract terms for solar at homes, apartments and businesses. The bill would make California the first state to alter such contracts retroactively, upending property values and renters’ electricity bills.
Assembly leadership scrambled to bring the controversial bill up for a vote. They suspended a voter-approved mandate that amended bills wait 72 hours before getting a floor vote. The bill had been amended Monday evening, so it wasn’t eligible for a floor vote until Thursday evening. The waiver caught opponents of the bill by surprise and complicated lobbying against the measure.
“It is difficult for the public interest community to educate 80 legislators in just a few weeks, much less a day,” said Bernadette Del Chiaro, the Environmental Working Group’s senior vice president for California. “With more time, we believe more than a majority of legislators would have seen this bill for what it is: a dangerous precedent to retroactively break consumer contracts as part of the utilities’ war on rooftop solar.”
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