By Los Angeles Editorial Board
California is betting big on a not-too-distant future in which burning fossil fuels to cool homes or propel cars is just a bad memory, and all power comes from clean, renewable sources like the sun, wind and water. It’s a bold goal that will require visionary and sometimes uncomfortable leadership to achieve.
That’s why it’s bewildering that state regulators would even consider undermining one of the state’s most successful green power revolutions — small rooftop solar arrays — especially after taxpayers invested more than $3 billion in rebates to get the market moving.
And get moving it did. Twenty-five years ago there were about 10,000 rooftop solar power systems on homes, businesses and public buildings across this vast and sunny state. Today, there are more than 1.2 million, accounting for more than half of all of the small rooftop solar units in the entire United States. And that number is still growing.
