Last October, San Diego Gas & Electric submitted an application to state regulators to charge solar customers for the energy they provide to the grid with what was called a "network use charge." This fee quickly became a lightning rod for proponents of solar power.

The effort was met with a chorus of dissent from many sectors of the population in San Diego, which has more solar power systems than any other city in America.

After coalitions of school districts and water districts were formed, solar contractors throughout the state united, and solar producers wrote thousands of emails and letters to legislators and regulators, the California Public Utilities Commission rejected the proposal last month. It cited state law prohibiting utilities from targeting energy producers with unfair fees and ordered the utility to file a new rate proposal without the charge.

Mission accomplished for the state's job-creating solar industry? Not quite. The utility is back at the CPUC proposing to change the way it charges schools, water districts, cities and commercial properties that have solar. It also is expected to file statewide legislation to accomplish the same goal.

As a result, the local schools that produce their own power could see costs increase by more than $1 million annually. Equally drastic are the impacts to the water districts and municipal agencies that have invested millions upon millions of dollars in solar power projects.

In most cases, the new rate structure would make it more expensive to go solar than to use the utility's energy. The uncertainty being created by the possibility of this charge is resulting in the cancellation, disruption or postponement of several major solar projects, undercutting California's clean energy leadership.

At the heart of this fight is a policy called "net energy metering." Also known as the program that lets a customer's electric meter "spin backward," net metering is a simple billing arrangement that ensures solar customers receive fair credit for the electricity their systems generate during daytime hours. It operates like rollover minutes on a cellphone; when a facility doesn't use all the power its solar panels are producing at a given time, the extra energy goes to the property's neighbors and the owner gets a credit on his or her electric bill.

In place since 1995, net-metering is one of the most effective state-level policy tools to avail solar energy to thousands of California residents and independently owned businesses. Forty-three other states have adopted the policy.

Largely due to this policy, California's solar market continues to grow exponentially – at a pace of up to 40 percent per year, far faster than the general economy. According to the Solar Foundation's job census, our state's solar industry employs more than 25,000 Californians. Equally important, the majority of people working in the solar industry are from working- class communities. These are jobs that reduce our dependence on imported fossil fuels and cannot be outsourced to China and other countries.

Who is driving the growth of California's rooftop solar sector? Families in median income ZIP codes looking to save money now comprise the majority of California's new residential solar customers, thanks to the growing popularity of solar finance models where customers can lease the panels rather than making a big-ticket purchase.

Despite the setback SDG&E just received from regulators, we know that the utilities are continuing to make a concerted effort to change the rules of net metering and accelerate limitations on the program. Such efforts – call it a "solar tax" – threaten one of the few growing sectors in our state's economy and could also penalize existing solar generators by increasing their bills. That creates uncertainty in the market and will stall job growth.

This is why we are committed to ensuring that California has the policies in place to meet and exceed its clean energy goals. It is imperative that the governor and Legislature let the investor-owned utilities know that the people set the energy policy, not publicly traded corporations.

While our elected government can set the nation's leading energy policies, it does no good if the utilities are able to undermine our state's energy goals by changing billing structures on solar producers. Our lawmakers must step up to protect net metering, expand the jobs of our fastest growing industry and defend the interests of the thousands of homeowners, schools, water districts and cities who have invested in a sustainable California future.

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Daniel Sullivan is the founder and president of Sullivan Solar Power, a firm that installs residential, commercial and municipal solar energy systems in Southern California.

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