As a licensed solar contractor and board member of the California Solar
Energy Industries Association, I have been working on this bill for more
than two years. It would levy a small surcharge on customers' electricity
rates to finance incentives for homeowners and businesses to install clean
solar power.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was wholeheartedly behind it, along with a
bipartisan coalition of senators, a consensus reflected in its designation
as SB 1.
But literally within days of the return of rolling blackouts to
California, SB 1 was amended in such a way that even the solar contractors
themselves -- who have been doing solar work in the state for more than 20
years -- now oppose it.
Why? Union special interests have managed to hijack this bill by requiring
that "prevailing wages'' -- essentially union wages -- be paid for all
future solar work done in the state.
Moreover, the bill will make it illegal for specialized solar contractors
to install systems unless they are also certified electricians, a level of
expertise inappropriate for rooftop solar work.
As a result, Sen. John Campbell, R-Costa Mesa, a co-author of the bill,
has withdrawn his support. The most recent vote, Aug. 25 in the Assembly
Appropriations Committee, was along party lines, with Democrats in support
and Republicans now opposed.
Even if the bill clears a full vote of the Assembly, these union
provisions are likely to force Schwarzenegger to veto his own solar bill.
By promoting the adoption of solar energy, SB 1 obviously would have been
good for my business. But in its original form it would have been good for
California as well.
The goal was to spur the installation of 3,000 megawatts of electrical
generating capacity (approximately the power from 1 million residential
rooftop systems). This power is equivalent to five new generating plants
the size of San Jose's Metcalf Energy Center.
Akeena Solar calculates that the bill would provide more than $6 billion
in benefits to the state's power grid, environment and economy, even after
accounting for the cost of incentives.
Requiring the payment of prevailing wages on California's solar work will
increase costs to the state by $755 million over the course of the
program. This is a direct transfer of money from California ratepayers to
unions. The provision forces customers to pay more for their solar systems
and requires non-specialized contractors to do the work.
Although this may be politics as usual in Sacramento, turning this bill
into a partisan power grab is bad for our energy infrastructure, bad for
our environment and bad for our economy.
It is a difficult decision for solar contractors to oppose our own bill.
But we refuse to see our industry hijacked.
--Barry Cinnamon is president of Akeena Solar in Los Gatos, which designs
and installs residential and commercial solar electric systems. He wrote
this article for the San Jose Mercury News.
