Former Edison executive, now a lawmaker, seeks to cut rooftop solar credits

Bizarrely, neither "NEM" nor "Net Metering" exist anywhere in this article.

This proposal appears to break the promise of NEM1 and NEM2, which existed to incentivize people to install rooftop solar. The different NEM agreements relate to the amount of credit you receive for exporting excess solar energy to the grid. NEM1 (until 2017) is the best deal, NEM2 (until 2023) is still very good, and with NEM3, you get an insignificant credit for exported power.

With this bill, customers would be shifted to the nearly useless NEM3 long before the 20 years they were promised. This isn't the first time they have attacked rooftop solar. Previously, there was a failed proposal to charge a substantial monthly minimum that would financially damage not only NEM1 and NEM2 customers but also NEM3 customers who invested in batteries instead of exporting their daytime excess to the grid for storage. They backed off of that, for now.

Even worse, California requires all new construction to install rooftop solar, but leaves builders to price it as they see fit. This has led to many builders charging a 2x premium over what it would cost to contract a company to install solar yourself. You can't opt out, and this is not included in the advertised price. New construction is also the easiest and cheapest time to install solar.

Rooftop solar helps stabilize the grid.