California expands funding for solar incentives
In 2005, the California legislature failed to pass the Million Solar Roofs bill. Environmental advocates, therefore, turned to the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), which has the authority to establish a strong solar rebate program on its own.
In October, UCS activists and others deluged the CPUC with emails of support for establishing a strong solar program similar to the Million Solar Roofs initiative. The CPUC received more than 50,000 e-mails, nearly half of which came from UCS activists. This is the highest number of public comments the CPUC has ever received on a single issue, and it made a difference. On December 13, the CPUC expanded funding for solar incentives in 2006 to $300 million and released a proposal to create an 11-year, $3.2 billion incentive program for solar energy systems on California rooftops. This will be the biggest solar program in the nation and, after Germany, the second biggest in the world. The program would create 3,000 MW of grid-connected solar energy in California. The program is expected to create approximately 19,000 construction jobs and 3,000 maintenance jobs and eliminate more than 52 million tons of carbon dioxide.
