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.

About the Authors

Angela Lipanovich is an attorney at Estriatus Law and lives in Santa Cruz. Jenny Folkesson is the executive director of SolarWAVE Action,  a nonpartisan research and advocacy organization .

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.