Watching the gyrations of the intertwined energy and transportation sectors of our economy is frustrating at best. Anyone with a modicum of critical thinking skills has to wonder what our politicians and bureaucrats are thinking? Last week the CPUC kneecapped the rooftop solar market. The Comicle writes
For new customers, reduce the amount utilities’ pay them for excess power by at least 75% compared with current rates. The change would not apply to residents with existing solar systems.
Because residents and businesses with solar panels generally have smaller energy bills, they contribute less to a utility company’s fixed costs, such as transmission and distribution networks, which are passed on to ratepayers. As a result, non-solar residents, including low-income residents and renters, carry more of the cost burden.
The solar rules increased bills for customers who do not have rooftop solar by $3.37 billion in 2021, growing to $4.5 billion so far this year, according to the CPUC’s Public Advocates Office.
See what they did there? People with panels "contribute less to transmission and distribution" costs. But what about generation costs? They pour private capital–lots of it– into helping the utilities avoid those costs. Another case of lies, damned lies and statistics. The other push is to get people to add batteries when they put in the panels, so the load is spread better throughout the day and night. Good idea for a lot of reasons, but crazy expensive and getting more so as the metals that go into batteries get more expensive. I'll bet the CPUC Public Advocates Office isn't spending any time on looking at where those metals come from (hint: Russia, China, the Congo with little environmental protections and some slave labor).
Speaking of grid stability, how does the all-out push to force people to buy EVs (by 2035 in California) fit? The president of Toyota had this to say this week
President Akio Toyoda said he is among the auto industry’s silent majority in questioning whether electric vehicles should be pursued exclusively, comments that reflect a growing uneasiness about how quickly car companies can transition. “That silent majority is wondering whether EVs are really OK to have as a single option. But they think it’s the trend so they can’t speak out loudly.”
Toyota is still pursuing plug-in hybrids and hydrogen and they have their eye on the cost of all of this
Sticker prices for electric vehicles have also jumped this year because of the rising cost of battery materials, limiting the pool of buyers who can afford one.
In a debate between the "silent majority" that designs, builds and has to sell cars at a profit and the CPUC and Newsom, I'm more comfortable with people who look at all angles of the question–it's good that they aren't staying totally silent. Newsom in particular has his focus elsewhere, but his ex-wife weighed in on him this week.
Kimberly Guilfoyle made a rare public comment about her ex-husband, California Governor Gavin Newsom, on Sunday. “In California, they have vowed to get rid of gas-powered cars. A bunch of winners over there. Ask me how I know. I got news for him. He ain’t making it to the White House!”
In the meantime, rooftop solar got more expensive, EVs got more expensive, and electricity got more expensive. But at least there is more "equity".
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