The Governor and Legislature are scrambling in the final hours of the legislative session to pass AB 3121 (Petrie-Norris) in an attempt to provide consumers and businesses negligible relief from rapidly escalating utility bills. In their haste, they’re planning to cut equity programs that provide greater utility bill relief to the very people who need it the most, low-income Californians including our state’s environmental justice and tribal communities.
In response to the California Public Utilities Commission’s recent approvals of multiple utility tariff increases, legislators are proposing a one-time $30 bill credit (which is probably a small fraction of your ongoing bill increases).
Where are they getting the money? By raiding funds from the Solar on Multifamily Affordable Housing (SOMAH) Program, Self-Generation Incentive Program (SGIP), and California Schools Healthy Air, Plumbing and Efficiency (CalSHAPE) Program. Both SOMAH and SGIP help low-income housing residents, families, and small businesses in disadvantaged communities generate and store their own energy and lower their energy bills, while providing workforce development and climate resilience. CalSHAPE funds critical heating, ventilation, and air conditioning improvements in schools as temperatures keep hitting record highs. All three programs are supported by a coalition of environmental justice, environmental, equity, solar, and industry groups.
It’s important to note that SOMAH does not cost ratepayers a dime. It’s supported by cap-and-trade funds, and the program lowers bills by $21-$39 a month for tens of thousands of renters in affordable housing located in disadvantaged communities where SOMAH-supported solar panels have been installed. That’s why when we learned of the proposals to cut SOMAH funding last week, we submitted a letter urging our lawmakers to protect it and reject the proposals that are now packaged in AB 3121 (Petrie-Norris).
The Legislature has passed bills, including one just this week, that would make it easier for more low-income Californians, including tribal communities, to install solar and save on their electricity bills for many years moving forward. And now they want to take that away?
As for SGIP, the program will stop being a ratepayer-funded program in four months. In 2025, it will transition to a general fund program moving forward (under AB 209), and those ratepayer savings can already be counted on for next year and beyond. SGIP will also extend to all Californians, including those who live in communities powered by public utilities.
The state should not fund a one-time utility bill credit for everyone – including wealthy owners of second and third homes – by stripping funding from programs that help low-income Californians who spend a disproportionate amount of their paycheck on utility bills. That’s a reverse Robin Hood.
Is this trade-off of long-term environmental justice, climate, and energy benefits for short-term, small-scale bill savings worth it? Of course not. We urge the Governor and Legislature to oppose AB 3121 and instead focus on addressing the true causes of our affordability crisis, specifically investor-owned utility profits, which are soaring along with their rates.