Kicking off its largest fundraising campaign in history, the California Solar & Storage Association (CALSSA) has announced a goal of raising $1 million dollars in September to defend California’s position as the country’s leading solar and storage market.
With California’s cornerstone clean energy policy, Net Energy Metering (NEM), under an unprecedented assault from some of the country’s biggest utility and natural gas companies, CALSSA has put together a robust plan that includes legal counsel, paid advertising and petition gathering among many other activities to defend California’s distributed energy industry. However, this all comes with a hefty price tag, so the association is asking members and solar supporters from across the industry to pitch in to keep California’s solar and storage market alive.
“California’s world-renowned solar market is under siege by some of the country’s most powerful fossil fuel industry players,” said Bernadette Del Chiaro, executive director of the California Solar and Storage Association. “We can win but we need everyone to stand up and help us fight.”
Activities the association will invest in include generating 200,000 public comments, field organizing, paid media and a full suite of top-of-the-line legal representation. Investor-owned utilities are pushing for monthly fees of on average $78 per solar household, reducing the credit consumers receive for surplus solar electricity sent back to the grid on summer days by 77% and making solar all but uneconomical for disadvantaged communities that are the most needing of reliable clean energy and storage as the state faces massive fires and power shut-offs. The California Public Utility Commission may rule on NEM by the end of the year, making the next several months critical for CALSSA’s efforts.
“One million dollars in one month may seem like a lot, but it’s a drop in the bucket to what is at stake for our companies and the jobs we support,” said Del Chiaro.
Companies wanting to contribute to CALSSA’s Solar & Storage Defense Fund can go here to make a donation or reach out to josh@calssa.org to discuss giving options.
News item from CALSSA
“Kicking off its largest fundraising campaign in history, the California Solar & Storage Association (CALSSA) has announced a goal of raising $1 million dollars in September to defend California’s position as the country’s leading solar and storage market.”
This is where one needs to have a good understanding of what NEM 3.0 should be and how one can get to that point. CALSSA looking at a $1 million dollar “war chest” may be weak when the “big three” in California show up with millions of dollars from ratepayer electricity costs to use for their lobbying campaigns to the Legislature, CEC, CPUC and even CALISO. Just recently SDG&E found a Legislator shill to push their AB1139 that would basically kill the residential solar PV business in California. Back in 2016 in Florida Duke Energy and FPL spent a total of around $20 million pushing a voter initiative bill onto the ballot to protect their regulated monopolies from private solar PV installations. The so called Amendment 1 was rejected by the voters, but one can see the lengths these desperate utilities will go and the money spent to ‘force’ their view as the proper view. CALSSA may find their $1 million dollars only puts them on the “menu” not on the “venue” to protect NEM in California.