Join us at the CalMatters Ideas Festival on May 21. 💡 Get your tickets now.
Welcome to CalMatters, the only nonprofit newsroom devoted solely to covering statewide issues that affect all Californians. Sign up for WeeklyMatters for a Saturday morning digest of the latest news and commentary from the Golden State.
This story is part of California Voices, a commentary forum aiming to broaden our understanding of the state and spotlight Californians directly impacted by policy or its absence. Learn more here.
Guest Commentary written by
Angela Lipanovich is an attorney at Estriatus Law and lives in Santa Cruz.
Jenny Folkesson is the executive director of SolarWAVE Action.
Re: “Californians’ electric bills would be much lower without state’s program fees“
A recent CalMatters guest commentary has California’s affordability story exactly backwards. Rooftop solar isn’t driving up utility bills — wildfire capital and guaranteed utility profits are the dominant drivers.
The California Public Advocates Office attributes roughly 21% of rates to wildfire-related capital, the single largest driver of recent rate increases. The California Public Utilities Commission, the state’s utilities regulator, also guarantees the three investor-owned utilities returns on equity to almost 10%. Last year, CEO pay alone reached $19.8 million.
Every ratepayer covers those costs.
The rooftop solar “subsidy” is a rate-design, not a transfer of money. The Natural Resources Defense Council describes it as fixed-cost recovery by utilities on flat sales, not a payment from non-solar to solar customers. Research has shown that existing rooftop solar actually saved all ratepayers approximately $1.5 billion in 2024 alone by reducing peak load and deferring transmission build-out. The latest version of the state’s rooftop solar program has already slashed solar credits by 75%, yet wildfire spending has no such ceiling.
Real affordability means reforming rate design and expanding solar ownership opportunities to more renters, low-income families and small businesses — not scapegoating customers who generate their own clean power.
Read more from CalMatters
Text
Get breaking news on your phone.
Download
Keep up with the latest via our app.
Sign up
Receive free updates in your inbox.
We’re CalMatters, your nonprofit and nonpartisan news guide.
Our journalists are here to empower you and our mission continues to be essential.
But we can’t keep doing this without support from readers like you. Please give what you can today.
Every gift helps.
We love that you want to share our stories with your readers. Hundreds of publications republish our work on a regular basis.

All of the articles at CalMatters are available to republish for free, under the following conditions:










If you’d like to regularly republish our stories, we have some other options available. Contact us at republish@calmatters.org if you’re interested.

Have other questions or special requests? Or do you have a great story to share about the impact of one of our stories on your audience? We’d love to hear from you. Contact us at republish@calmatters.org.
info@calmatters.org
membership@calmatters.org
Link Copy link

source