Lawsuit challenges California Licensing Board’s crackdown on rooftop solar installations

SAN DIEGO — The Center for Biological Diversity today joined consumer and solar energy advocates to challenge a new California ordinance banning solar companies from installing or maintaining batteries.

The Contractors State License Board rule would increase the costs and administrative burdens associated with installing rooftop solar panels and energy storage, technologies that are critical to making communities more resilient to power outages and the fossil fuel-induced climate crisis.

“It’s outrageous that California regulators continue to crack down on rooftop solar, and it must stop,” said Roger Lin, a senior staff attorney at the Center. “They are undermining California’s climate goals and making it even harder for working-class families to access clean energy. This licensing stunt is straight out of the utility playbook and will skyrocket electricity rates while worsening the climate crisis. People are dying from extreme heat, and California desperately needs smart, resilient energy solutions. Instead, the board is maintaining a fragile power grid that is destroying critical habitat and promoting environmental injustice.”

The amended complaint filed today in San Diego County Superior Court joins the Center’s case to a lawsuit filed last month by CalPIRG, the Solar Rights Alliance, the California Solar & Storage Association and one of the injured solar contractors.

In the face of falling rooftop solar rates and historic job losses, the board refused to address how the new rules would further hurt small businesses. It changed the solar contractor license without analyzing the potential economic impacts, as required by state law.

“This misguided decision by the licensing board severely limits who we can turn to for solar storage, without any real evidence of a safety issue. Consumers should be able to choose their own contractor — especially someone they have already vetted and selected to install their solar panels — to install and maintain their solar storage,” said Jenn Engstrom, CALPIRG State Director. “This red tape will not only delay service and cost consumers more, but it will also slow down the installation of solar and storage across the state. It will make it harder for us to achieve our clean energy goals, which is bad for every Californian.”

“The CSLB decision jeopardizes solar energy consumers’ guarantees and deprives consumers of their ability to control their energy bills and avoid blackouts,” said Dave Rosenfeld, executive director of Solar Rights Alliance. “The ruling was made without evidence, will further limit consumers’ access to rooftop solar panels and batteries, and is yet another gift to the energy monopoly.”

The board also refused to consider the environmental harms of the new regulation, as required by the California Environmental Quality Act. Hundreds of people told the board that the regulation would have a chilling effect on rooftop solar installations. Its actions contradict the California Air Resources Board’s finding that at least twice as much rooftop solar is needed to meet the state’s climate goals and the United States’ global agreement to triple renewable energy by 2030.

For-profit utilities across the country are spending massive resources lobbying policymakers to kill rooftop solar and battery storage programs because distributed energy sources like rooftop solar threaten their bottom lines.

The center has challenged the California Public Utilities Commission’s decision to cut net metering, which is currently before the California Supreme Court. On Monday, the center asked the commission to reconsider the community solar’s ​​May decision that would deny solar power to disadvantaged communities that would benefit the most from it.

CalPIRG and Solar Rights Alliance are represented in this litigation by the San Francisco-based public interest law firm Shute, Mihaly and Weinberger.