FERC dismisses petition to federalize solar net metering

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission today dismissed a controversial petition to end state and local jurisdiction over net metering programs. The petition was brought by the New England Ratepayers Association (NERA) and drew significant bipartisan pushback from around the country.
Solar and clean energy advocates celebrated the dismissal.
“As the leader of a coalition of conservative groups, solar advocates, state regulators and elected officials from both sides of the aisle in opposition to this petition, SEIA applauds FERC’s unanimous decision to dismiss this flawed petition,” said Abigail Ross Hopper, president and CEO of SEIA. “Solar has created hundreds of thousands of jobs in states across the country and contributed more than $100 billion to the U.S. economy. Our industry holds great promise to help create jobs and revive local economies. We are grateful to the state utility commissions and many other partners who strongly opposed this petition. We will continue working in the states to strengthen net-metering policies to generate more jobs and investment, and we will advocate for fair treatment of solar at FERC where it has jurisdiction.”
“We are pleased that the Commission has unanimously dismissed NERA’s unsupported request to dramatically expand federal regulation into state net metering policies,” said Advanced Energy Economy (AEE)’s general counsel and managing director Jeff Dennis. “The Commission appropriately declined to upend decades of its own precedent, and the state energy policies in place in over 40 states and utilized by over 2 million retail electricity customers that rely on that precedent, based on a set of hypotheticals and generic grievances that failed to provide any facts or circumstances that would support massive federal preemption of state law. AEE looks forward to returning to its work with FERC and with state regulators to identify and put in place policies that give individual households and businesses more options for owning and utilizing distributed energy resources to meet their own needs, and that maximize utilization of those resources in both retail and wholesale markets to lower overall system costs and improve the reliability and resilience of the grid for all consumers.”
“This is a big win for our climate and for communities embracing clean solar power,” said Howard Crystal, an attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity’s Energy Justice program. “FERC’s unanimous ruling ensures that states can keep appropriately compensating people who install rooftop solar. That allows community solar and other distributed renewables to continue playing a critical role in the urgent transition to clean energy.”
“Today’s decision by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission speaks for the entire country. Americans have made it clear that they want solar power. That’s why more than 2.2 million families and 100,000 businesses have already invested tens of billions of their own dollars in energy independence. FERC has acted in their best interest by protecting the rights of solar owners,” said Environment America Go Solar campaign director Bronte Payne issued the following statement in support of the decision. “Net metering, which fairly compensates solar owners for the excess energy that they put back into the grid, is a critical policy for encouraging more people to go solar. With this policy still in place in states across the country, local solar can continue to grow — helping to reduce pollution and create healthier, more livable communities.”