Hi folks,
Hope you're doing as well as possible in these wild times!
Every year around Thanksgiving, my favorite giving project Blue Heart
<https://www.blueheartaction.org/> publishes a Giving Guide (2020 version
here <https://www.blueheartaction.org/giving-guide-2020>) to recommend
specific places to donate money: important and amazing but less
visible/less funded organizations which focus on long-term movement/power
building for marginalized communities.
This year, we're offering a donation match with the Giving Guide so that
any funds donated through the guide, up to a certain amount, will be
doubled (!!!). This will also help us see how much money the Giving Guide
moves :)
I'm looking for folks willing to contribute to this matching pool in
advance. This would be a pledge to match up to $N of other people's
donations to the specific orgs listed in the Giving Guide. We're hoping
this can be a big round number to inspire everyone to give more.
If you might be interested in making a larger donation in advance—or if you
have friends who might be interested—please reply to me in the next few
days and we can chat about the details.
I realize this is a bigger ask, and I deeply appreciate your consideration.
Excited to share the Giving Guide once it launches!
<3
Stacey
Q: is there a minimum amount asked of a matching donor?
A: not really, every little bit helps! If you're on the fence, please send
me an email! I would appreciate increments of $100 for bookkeeping, and if
it's < $100, perhaps waiting until the Giving Guide is out and giving
directly would be simpler. I'm personally in for $3000.
Hi Folks,
Forwarding this email from the indefatigable Igor Tregub.
If you're like me, you probably also waffled re: the proposed NEM3.0
rules in California. On the one hand -- yes, under current net metering
rules, home owners who are getting paid back for their *average* cost of
electricity for power produced in the middle of the day, when it's
cheapest, are getting a pretty good deal. And this deal *is* financed by
people who do not have solar on their homes -- in effect, a wealth
transfer from the less wealthy home owners to the more wealthy ones,
since it's the wealthy who tend to have rooftop solar.
On the other hand, I think it should be possible to fix the rates
without also creating a giveaway to utilities, in the form of
interconnection fees. For our newly installed system at Chrysalis, it
would be more than $100 per month, just for HAVING the solar panels!
This is madness -- it will destroy the rooftop solar industry in
California and cement the power of the investor-owned utilities like
PG&E.
Although I cannot make the in-person rally on Thursday, I plan to call
the governor every day for the next two weeks.
--igor
----- Forwarded message from Igor Tregub <itregub(a)gmail.com> -----
Date: Tue, 11 Jan 2022 13:26:00 -0800
From: Igor Tregub <itregub(a)gmail.com>
To: undisclosed-recipients: ;
Subject: THURSDAY 1/13: Our Last, Best Chance to Save Solar in CA - LA, SF, and from Your Home!
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Dear friends,
I hope the new year finds you and yours well and safe.
As you may have heard, rooftop solar is under attack. Whether you’re a rooftop
solar owner, plan to go solar in the next couple of years, or just think local
and community solar plays an integral role in fighting climate change: solar
needs you.
Action 1: [1]Call the CA Public Utilities Commission Thursday 1/13 at 9:40 am
(meeting starts at 10 am but get on the line early). Details immediately below
and talking points are at the bottom of this email.
Date 01/13/2022
Time 10:00 AM (please sign on by 9:40 am if possible)
Location Remote access only via webcast or phone
Call-in-Number (800) 857-1917
Participant 9899501#
PASSCODE
Contact email [2]VotingMeetingHelp(a)cpuc.ca.gov or call (415)
703-5263
Webcast [3]http://www.adminmonitor.com/ca/cpuc
[cleardot]
Action 2: Every day for next 2 weeks: Call the Governor at 916-445-2841 and say
something along these lines: I am against the proposed Solar Penalty Fee!
Nobody should pay a penalty for putting solar panels on their roof and
California should be doing more, not less, to promote rooftop solar. Please
show us you are serious about rate hikes, blackouts and air pollution. Say no
to the utilities’ profit grab, and yes to helping millions of working and
middle class people get solar.
You can also email the Governor [4]here.
Action 3: [5]Can you show up this Thursday, Jan. 13 at 11 AM? We’re rallying
at California PUC offices in both Los Angeles and San Francisco. COVID
protocols will be followed. Please wear a mask.
Action 4: Write an op-ed opposing the Net Energy Metering 3.0 Proposed Decision
and submit it to your local paper.
The Background (hat tip to Climate Hawks Vote for developing the background
below (slight updates from me).
Last month the California Public Utilities Commission released a proposed
decision that would gut rooftop solar in California. The fees imposed on
rooftop solar owners would make California one of the three most expensive
states in the nation for rooftop solar - joining Alabama and worse than West
Virginia and Mississippi. It’s a horrible, shocking decision, long sought by
the big corporate utilities (PG&E, SoCal Edison, and Sempra/ SDG&E).
If you don’t already have rooftop solar, you might not have been following the
details. Solar homeowners get credits for the electricity they sell back to the
grid, known as net energy metering. The corporate utilities hate giving that
credit and claim that the cost shift (a term they invented) means that they
have to raise rates on non-solar customers. Climate hawks know the real reasons
they raise rates – payouts to wildfire victims, bankruptcy lawyers, and their
CEOs’ excessive salaries.
This is nothing more than a corporate money-grab: to keep their profits high, I
mean un-shift the costs, the investor-owned utilities want to impose a new
penalty on rooftop solar owners.
The proposed decision - a near-carbon copy of what PG&E requested - would tax
rooftop solar owners $57/ month and decimate the solar industry. Simply put, it
would be so expensive to go solar in California that no one would do it, during
a climate crisis hitting California hard. It’s mind bogglingly short-sighted
and slams the brakes on our state's climate leadership, at just the time when
the Biden Administration [6]has said we need to increase solar adoption by 40%.
Even the Governor yesterday said this proposal is flawed and "needs work."
According to CalMatters, he also "said 'changes need to be made' to [7]state
regulators’ controversial proposal to reform a wildly successful rooftop solar
incentive program." (Please be sure to thank him).
Thanks for standing up to save CA solar!
In solidarity,
Igor
Disclaimer: I am an employee of the CA Solar and Storage Association
Talking Points for Your 1 Minute at the CA Public Utilities Commission
1) Your name and where you live 2) Your org (if applicable) 3) I ask you to
listen to the Governor and reject the Net Energy Metering 3.0 Proposed
Decision. Instead, please:
● Keep local and community solar and battery storage growing in California,
so that millions of working and middle class people can get solar in the coming
years - both homeowners and renters.
● Don't buy the utility lie that rooftop solar is costing other people money.
Rooftop solar is reducing the cost of long-distance power lines - the real
reason for high rates, blackouts and wildfires.
4) In your own words, one of the following arguments to back up your request
(you pick, but remember you only have 1 minute):
a. Consumers should be able to control their energy bills: We're getting socked
with endless rate hikes. Consumers should be able to control their energy bills
and not be penalized for it, especially if we are expected to switch to
electric cars and appliances.
b. Power outages: Local rooftop solar and battery storage is the best and
proven way for people to protect themselves from power outages. This is
especially important for people with disabilities, medical issues, and those
whose budgets are devastated when a week's worth of groceries spoils.
c. Promoting local solar creates well-paying jobs: Rooftop solar and battery
storage projects are one of the best "shovel-ready" job creators out there.
Rooftop solar offers lots of local jobs in every community that cannot be
outsourced. Promoting local solar saves all ratepayers money whether or not
they have solar. Rooftop solar reduces the cost of long-distance power lines,
and can save every ratepayer $300/year for the next thirty years if we keep it
growing.
d. Climate change: California will not meet its climate change goals if we back
off from rooftop solar. The state itself says we need to triple the amount of
solar to get off fossil fuels - both large scale and rooftop solar. We can't do
that with large scale renewables alone. At this time, when it is so urgent to
get more clean energy on the grid of all forms, why would we nickel and dime
rooftop solar??
e. Open space: California can't meet its goals of protecting 30% of the last
remaining open spaces without a lot more rooftop solar. Rooftop solar reduces
the need to develop large solar and wind farms and transmission lines, and will
save an area half the size of LA. Let's be smart about how we transition to
clean energy and utilize our rooftops!
References
“Unpacking California’s Controversial New Rooftop Solar Proposal,” Inside
Climate News
[8]https://insideclimatenews.org/news/16122021/
inside-clean-energy-california-rooftop-solar-policy/
“Everything you need to know about California’s plan to slash solar
incentives,” Los Angeles Times
[9]https://www.latimes.com/environment/newsletter/2021-12-16/
california-plan-to-cut-solar-incentives-boiling-point
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References:
[1] https://www.cpuc.ca.gov/events-and-meetings/cpuc-voting-meeting-01-13-2022
[2] mailto:VotingMeetingHelp@cpuc.ca.gov
[3] http://www.adminmonitor.com/ca/cpuc
[4] https://govapps.gov.ca.gov/gov40mail/
[5] https://click.everyaction.com/k/40576727/324973077/-1778032769?nvep=ew0KICA…
[6] https://www.energy.gov/articles/doe-releases-solar-futures-study-providing-…
[7] https://calmatters.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=5f4af3af825368013c58e…
[8] https://click.everyaction.com/k/40576729/324973080/-2045318975?nvep=ew0KICA…
[9] https://www.latimes.com/environment/newsletter/2021-12-16/california-plan-t…
[10] mailto:berkeleyclimate+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
[11] https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/berkeleyclimate/CAHdPQY4s0HA-X5D=PPJQaUHY…
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