Mayor Eric Garcetti
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লস এঞ্জেলেস
Dear Mr. Mayor,
Regrettably, I have concluded that the Department of Water and Power (DWP) is undermining your heralded solar rooftops program. The DWP is in the dark about solar energy.
The personal experience of our family is the starting point of my perspective. Several brand-new solar collectors have been sitting on our rooftop awaiting their interconnection with the DWP system. The DWP has stalled, and will stall, for many months. Few customers will sign up for this program when they learn of the delays. It pains me to note the slow crawl of the rooftop program; back in 1979, when I chaired the governor’s SolarCal Council, our first grant was to a rooftop solar program in San Bernardino directed by an African-American, Valerie Pope, with an apprenticeship program an installations by at-risk youth. My dreams have clearly stalled since that bright beginning.
Why do I believe this policy is deliberate? For one thing, top DWP officials, including Marcie Edwards, frequently express their skepticism towards rooftop solar installations. If my figures are accurate, the DWP has reached only one percent of the twenty percent solar goal mandated under SB 1 (2006), which you personally endorsed. The DWP promised 280 mw of net-metered solar rooftops by 2016. But as of December 31, 2014, they were claiming only 170 mw of installed solar, mostly large applications.
The DWP seems to measure “progress” based on the amount of ratepayer money it spends on its solar programs, not the actual number of solar rooftops or the percentage of renewable energy installed. The New York Times accurately সুপরিচিত on February 12, 2014 that “distributed” solar rooftop installations are an existential threat to the centralized utility model. It’s great to develop large commercial projects, but LA residents need to see and feel the benefits on their roofs and in their bills.
Your otherwise admirable 2015 Sustainability City pLAn fails to address this serious undermining of the city and state’s solar mandates. The pLAn asserts that LA “has the most installed solar power of any city in the US” without mentioning the failure to install rooftop solar. On p. 24, the document projects goals of cumulative total megawatts of 900-1,500 mw of local solar power by 2025 and 1,500-1,800 mw by 2035. Sounds impressive until one notes on the same page that the city currently has “enough rooftop space to hold 5,500 mw of solar power. That’s a token goal compared to our potential, and it continues to ignore the percentage of solar installations on homeowner rooftops.
I request a DWP printout of the actual number of rooftop installations on a year-by-year basis since the statewide “million solar rooftops” began after the passage of SB 1.
The pLAn document indicates the gravity of the problem by setting an inexplicitly distant 2017 goal – that’s two full years – to “reduce residential solar PV interconnection wait time to less than two weeks.” (p. 24) Note that this is an aspirational goal (a “near-term outcome”), not an enforceable policy with consumer protections.
By it’s stalling on rooftop solar installations, LA tarnishes its environmental leadership and places a drag on achieving California’s statewide climate goals. Think of how many potential citizen-customers are eager to install rooftop solar collectors, producing their own energy while lowering and stabilizing their own rates. Compare this with the state’s “million electric cars” program, which makes it possible to purchase one of a variety of zero-emission vehicles in days, not months. Many of these vehicles are very affordable; assuming the savings on gasoline purchases combined with existing tax credit and rebate programs. The only difference is the resistance of the DWP, which is reminiscent of the resistance of the gas-guzzling automobile lobby in Detroit decades ago.
Mr. Mayor, you have every reason to stand up to the DWP in the name of consumers and your own pledges to groups like Environment California who have championed these programs. The DWP acts like a rogue agency, and is far behind many investor-owned utilities in implementing the million-solar rooftops program. I look forward to discussing this defiance of your pledge to carry out basic management of city agencies carry LA’s solar banner in the global climate talks.
পরম শ্রদ্ধার সাথে,
TOM HAYDEN
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