Letters to the Editor: Stop blaming rooftop solar customers for soaring electric bills

To the editor: Imagine if a group of citizens got together to reduce their consumption of a commodity that was in high demand, such as food, water or gasoline. Would we then blame them for increasing the prices of those things? (“Southern California electric bills are soaring. Here’s how to save money,” Aug. 21)

Citizens who invest their own money to install rooftop solar are not the cause of rising electricity prices, as the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), which regulates utility companies that sell electricity for profit, would have you believe.

At a time when the demand for power is growing because of electric vehicles, heat pumps and data centers, investing in rooftop solar is an important tool in providing energy security and resilience for local communities.

Shayne Smith, Pasadena

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To the editor: Unlike other states, California requires its private utilities to automatically enroll most customers in time-of-use plans, in which rates are based on the time of day electricity is used. In most places, kilowatt-hours are simply totaled, resulting in lower bills.

If my bill was $185 — what your article says was the July average for Southern California Edison customers — I’d jump for joy, especially in this very hot weather. As a physically disabled octogenarian, I need to have the air conditioner on, resulting in bills over $500.

Many others are in the same boat, and it impacts our limited budgets.

Why does California do this when other states do not? Everything here costs more.

Linda Roberts, Altadena

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To the editor: Just as drought-tolerant gardens like ours don’t cause water rates to increase, households with environmentally friendly rooftop solar like ours aren’t responsible for skyrocketing electricity rates.

Who is? The private utilities and their out-of-control spending.

For example, expensive long-distance transmission lines are very profitable for utility investors while raising the cost of electricity for all ratepayers, whether those customers have rooftop solar or not.

These large utilities have monopoly control of the sun’s energy on our California rooftops — and their pressure on the CPUC to curtail incentives for solar customers has contributed to the loss of 17,000 good-paying local solar jobs in the last year.

Susan Dembowski, Pasadena