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For decades, California courts gave the policy decisions of state utility regulators unparalleled deference. But those choices now face strict judicial oversight, thanks to a ruling in a lawsuit over the future of net energy metering that returns to court this month.
The lawsuit challenges whether the California Public Utilities Commission, or CPUC, broke the law in 2022 with a decision that damaged the state’s once-thriving rooftop solar program. In upcoming briefs to the California Courts of Appeal, EWG, Protect Our Communities Foundation and Center for Biological Diversity will outline why the change was unlawful. 
This briefing is the second time the appeals court will review the case. This time, the CPUC will face greater scrutiny. If that results in a ruling that forces the commission to reconsider their harmful 2022 solar decision, consumers and the environment will be the real winners.
The CPUC has five commissioners, all appointed by Gov. Gavin Newsom. Critics say the commission greenlights whatever the state’s three investor-owned monopoly utilities want. That includes outdated energy infrastructure plans that waste millions and cause huge rate hikes, as well as steps to diminish consumer-oriented clean energy like rooftop solar. 
Rooftop solar not only helps reduce dependence on old, dirty power sources like natural gas, it also benefits the economy. California’s net metering program created a boom in solar by giving electricity bill credits to rooftop solar users for excess energy their solar panels generate and send back to the grid for use by others in their immediate neighborhood.
The utilities, Pacific Gas & Electric Company, Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric, didn’t like this program because it hurt their bottom line. They see rooftop solar as their biggest competitor and want to halt its growth, using the CPUC to achieve that end. 
The CPUC’s 2022 net metering decision is a prominent example. It triggered sharp declines in rooftop solar installations, tens of thousands of solar worker layoffs and widespread solar company bankruptcies. It also knocked the state off its path toward 100% clean energy. Along with our allies, EWG protested the decision through the regulatory process, in 2023, but the CPUC denied that challenge.
Our coalition then filed a lawsuit in the California Court of Appeal. We argued that the CPUC violated state law by, among other things, failing to account for the broad societal and energy benefits of rooftop solar. We also said the commission didn’t follow the legislature’s clear directive that rooftop solar continue to grow under any successor tariff.
The appellate court sided with the CPUC and the investor-owned utilities, basing their decision on an outdated legal precedent that gave the CPUC broad deference. 
But our side didn’t give up. Appealing to the California Supreme Court in 2024, we argued that the lower court used the wrong standard of review and gave the CPUC too much deference. 
We scored a huge win: The Supreme Court justices in August 2025 agreed that the proper standard of review is a much stricter one, set by the California Legislature in 1998.  It found that courts have incorrectly for years used a much weaker test that gives broad deference to CPUC’s decisions.
The Supreme Court overturned the Courts of Appeal’s decision, sending the case back for a fresh review of the CPUC’s decision under the test for strong legal review.
It is important to note that the justices’ ruling addresses the standard of review the appeals court must use, not the merits of our challenge to the solar decision. Upcoming briefs in the appeals court case will give EWG and its allies a fresh chance to argue that the decision falls short of what the law requires. 
Written briefs must be submitted to the court by November 21 and reply briefs are due by December 8. A decision is expected in 2026.
Forcing courts to give the CPUC’s policy decisions much greater oversight is vital, given that the monopoly utilities show no sign of stopping their anti-competitive behavior. 
And with electricity becoming an increasingly important resource, the CPUC’s need to protect consumers and the environment, and to stand up to the monopoly utilities, is greater than ever before. 
For too long, California ratepayers have been subject to the decisions of what many believe is a “captured” regulator. Millions of residents struggle with increasingly high electricity bills, while the commission speedily approves exorbitant spending plans. 
Rooftop solar is often called a “disruptor technology” – a disparaging term whose origins lie in the utility’s perspective of what is “normal.” But in this case, it just might be an apt descriptor.  
Rooftop solar has already disrupted the CPUC – one of the most powerful government agencies in the U.S. – from getting away with making its decisions on the basis of a weak standard of judicial review.
We’re fighting to make sure this disruption turns into greater government accountability and ultimately into greater consumer choice, relief for all ratepayers and more affordable, clean energy. 
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