A good way to help Valley’s farm-working towns is to maintain solar credits now in place

Huron is like many other towns in California’s Central Valley. We are home to a large population of farmworkers, Latinos — hard-working individuals and families — who are paying more and more of our paychecks to utilities to keep the lights on and showers warm. As our costs increase, the utilities provide us with sometimes unreliable, expensive, and often pollution-emitting energy. I think we can do better to benefit all.

As the mayor of Huron, I believe we can chart a clean energy path while financially empowering my constituents with lower costs for safe and reliable clean energy. I am currently working with the Center for Energy Efficiency & Renewable Technologies to create a solar microgrid with battery storage. We have 20 acres set aside for this effort for a 5MW community solar installation. It would provide nonpolluting, carbon-free energy for more than 900 households, all of our small businesses, and a variety of industrial operations. The ideal would be that Huron own the solar utility and provide more affordable rates to the most low-income, hard-working families in the state.

Currently, there are gigawatts of solar being developed by others all around Huron. No community benefits or discounted clean energy are being reaped from these solar projects at this time. On the contrary, we are losing jobs and incurring higher utility bills. In the hopes of securing some local benefits, I am getting local workers trained as solar installers so they can benefit from the growth of solar in our area.

What we need are policies and regulations that can help make it possible for environmental justice communities to generate clean energy while empowering the local families and economy. The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) wants to adopt an extreme, utility-backed net-metering proposal. If adopted, this proposal could shut my solar project down before it even gets started.

Under the CPUC’s plan, community solar projects like ours would see our solar credits slashed by roughly 75%. Right now in California, through solar credits, independent solar producers earn $.30 per kWh on the clean and reliable solar energy they create for their neighbors. Under this proposal, independent producers would only earn $.08 per kWh on average. This wouldn’t be good for communities like Huron or any city with similar aspirations to achieve clean, climate-resilient energy. And even for Californians who do not adopt it, solar saves all ratepayers money. Enabling the continued growth of rooftop and community solar and battery storage would save California ratepayers $120 billion over the next 30 years. We must make solar more attractive for increased participation.

If this CPUC plan becomes reality, it would kill community economic empowerment plans meant to help sustain hard-working families and the local economy during this period of extreme drought. Our families are the backbone of the food chain nationwide and we need support, not barriers, to uplift our community. Under our current net-metering system, we can flourish to energize a sustainable local economy where it would take our town a short period of time to earn enough solar credit dollars to pay for our panels. Families struggling to make ends meet in Huron cannot afford to pay more and are forced to decide between food, mortgage, transportation, or power. We need the CPUC to be a proponent of our plan to empower families, not hinder them.

Under the CPUC proposal, corporate utilities — not California’s people — will own and control the Golden State’s solar future. I would like to ask Gov. Gavin Newsom what he thinks will happen if utilities, not Californians, are the only ones able to adopt solar. Does he think utilities will pass cost savings onto us in the form of lower energy bills? Will they make their infrastructure safe? Will they stop the blackouts? Not likely. Trust the people to control their own power.

If the governor wants communities like ours to benefit from the lower utility bills, cleaner air, and mitigated climate impacts that solar can deliver, we invite him to join us. We are calling on the CPUC to increase our solar credits, not slash them. Central Valley residents and all Californians must have an achievable path to creating our own independent, clean, and reliable solar energy future. Allow us to be a part of the solution with community-owned solar microgrids with battery storage.

Huron Mayor Rey León is an experienced advocate, organizer, and policy analyst.