California official: utilities would like to “strangle” solar
Last edited Wed Jan 22, 2014, 03:25 AM - Edit history (1)
Source: SFGate
Unless you follow California energy regulation very, very closely, you’ve probably never heard of Mark Ferron.
For nearly three years, Ferron served on the California Public Utilities Commission, the panel that sets utility rates, oversees telecom companies and plays a key role in California’s fight against global warming. The CPUC faced fierce scrutiny in the wake of the deadly 2010 San Bruno pipeline explosion, with critics accusing the commissioners of being too cozy with the companies they regulate. But much of the time, a seat on the five-member panel isn’t exactly a high-profile job.
Ferron abruptly resigned his post last Thursday. And people in California’s solar industry have been talking about him ever since.
Ferron, a former executive with Deutsche Bank and Salomon Brothers, stepped down to focus on fighting prostate cancer, which his doctors diagnosed in 2012. In one of his final acts as commissioner, he penned a three-page goodbye note that gives a remarkably blunt assessment of the state of California energy and climate policy, as well as the CPUC.
Read more: http://blog.sfgate.com/energy/2014/01/21/california-official-utilities-would-like-to-strangle-solar/
http://www.cpuc.ca.gov/NR/rdonlyres/D32220D6-0C9B-4413-A6F6-87C65E44AF2F/0/99FinalCommissionerReport140116.pdf
2. We are fortunate to have utilities in California that are orders of magnitude more enlightened than their brethren in the coal-loving states, although I suspect that they would still dearly like to strangle rooftop solar if they could. Modern utilities are subject to a rapidly evolving business environment, and I wonder whether some top managers at our utilities have the ability or the will to understand and control the far-flung and complex organizations they oversee. And I am very worried about our utilities’ commitment to their side of the regulatory compact. We at the Commission need to watch our utilities’ management and their legal and compliance advisors very, very carefully: it is clear to me that the legalistic, confrontational approach to regulation is alive and well. Their strategy is often: “we will give the Commission only what they explicitly order us to give them”. This is cat and mouse, not partnership, so we have to be one smart and aggressive cat.
4. Fortunately, or maybe unfortunately, with the passage of AB327, the thorny issue of Net Energy Metering and rate design has been given over to the CPUC. But recognize that this is a poisoned chalice: the Commission will come under intense pressure to use this authority to protect the interest of the utilities over those of consumers and potential self-generators, all in the name of addressing exaggerated concerns about grid stability, cost and fairness. You – my fellow Commissioners - all must be bold and forthright in defending and strengthening our state’s commitment to clean and distributed energy generation.
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Any solar is of course better than none, but the big projects by the utilities are not nearly as good as distributed i.e. consumer-owned ... IMHO 
