As full-time climate activists we recognize that our line of work is more like a marathon than a sprint, and know just how important it is to pause and celebrate victories along the way.  There have been climate policy wins related to building electrification, transportation and getting cities and big organizations to speak out in support of rooftop solar, which we’ve been proud to be a part of with our amazing coalitions of climate warriors.  We have seen climate program wins as well, such as nonprofit organizations reducing local climate injustices through the Solar Moonshot Program and nonprofits helping make electric vehicles affordable to communities of concern.  In addition, Hammond Climate Solutions’ founders, Tara and Justin Hammond, have won a handful of recent awards for their dedicated, bold climate leadership and vision to create a more just and equitable future. 

Most recently, Tara was presented the Environment Champion Award from Business for Good San Diego, a nonprofit organization led by San Diego-based businesses on a mission to engage the local business community on policy issues, strengthening the community’s wellbeing, quality of life and ability to participate in decision-making processes.  Tara has been an active member of the organization since 2020 through collaborating with other local business owners to get involved in local climate policy and facilitating coalition building between the business and climate communities in San Diego.

A month ago, Justin was named an awardee of his local town council's Hometown Heroes awards.  Hometown Heroes were selected for going above and beyond for their community, and Justin was recognized for his long-standing commitment to helping protect the environment locally and beyond. Today, as co-founder and chief energy advisor of Hammond Climate Solutions, Justin utilizes his expertise to perform feasibility studies and design clean energy systems for nonprofit organizations, large and small business, school districts, local municipalities and a variety of other organizations. 

Last month, our team was thrilled to see that San Diego State University (SDSU) Alumni, the alma mater of all of our current team members, named Tara as one of their 10 Rising Aztecs for 2021.  These alumni are under 40 and have been chosen for their extraordinary career achievements, awards and dedication to their alma mater.  Tara, an SDSU Alumni lifetime member, graduated in 2011 with her degree in public relations.  While at SDSU, she held climate leadership roles on campus, including but not limited to being CEO of  the Enviro-Business Society, the chair of the Associated Students’ Green Love/Sustainability Commission, board member of the GreenFest executive team and the Associated Students’ sustainability commissioner.  Since graduating, Tara has encouraged generations of climate activists to grow and thrive through mentoring those that have come after her, equipping them with opportunities in local climate activism and always creating time to connect with those in her community regardless of how packed her schedule is.

Earlier this year, Tara was also named one of San Diego Business Journal’s 40 Next Top Business Leaders Under 40 for 2021. This is the second time Tara has been selected as an awardee for this category by San Diego Business Journal.  Winners were honored for being young change makers, visionaries, leaders and innovators who are making a great impact on their community.  One of the ways Tara continues to make a positive impact on her community is being an active member of various boards, committees and coalitions, including California Solar+Storage Association San Diego chapter, the San Diego Green New Deal Alliance, Surfrider San Diego, Climate Defenders Action Fund, GRID Alternatives San Diego and the San Diego Climate Hub.  For more on what led her to this achievement, Tara’s acceptance video is available to watch here.

Tara was recently nominated to join the Business for Good San Diego board of directors as well as the California Alliance for Community Energy executive committee.  This summer Tara was re-elected vice chair of the San Diego Community Power Community Advisory Committee (Tara was nominated to be chair but respectfully declined and re-nominated the current chair who is a very strong equity champion). 

Our team is grateful for the many partners and clients that have contributed to our collective impact, from individual activists to local climate organizations and coalitions.  We are firm believers in collaborating with others in order to create a more just and equitable future that works for all. 

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” - Margaret Mead. 

A year-long battle to save rooftop solar in California is nearing a final decision.  Although going up against the monopoly utility companies and their allies has not been easy, local advocates have been successful in sending a loud and clear message: San Diegans want to protect rooftop solar and expand equitable access to solar and storage.  A proposed net energy metering (NEM) decision is expected to be made in December with a final decision expected by February from  the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), which will decide the future rooftop solar agreement in California, known as net energy metering 3.0 (NEM 3.0).  

Along with our partners in San Diego, we helped grow a coalition of over 40 local environmental, climate justice and advocacy organizations, five cities, the state’s second largest community choice energy program, schools and local elected officials to weigh in on the net energy metering proceeding to advocate for the continued growth of rooftop solar.  Over a year ago we reached out to San Diego-based solar advocates and helped establish and co-lead the Save California Solar coalition with the Solar Rights Alliance, which meets monthly and has many San Diego-based and statewide organizations involved. 

The City of Solana Beach led the charge in September, becoming the first city in the region to adopt a net metering 3.0 resolution, which specifically called out the investor-owned utilities’ proposal and its potential to disrupt the market.  The vote at Solana Beach’s Climate Action Commission and city council were unanimous after hearing many local organizations speak in support during public comments. 

“I am completely in support of the resolution,” said Solana Beach Deputy Mayor Kristi Becker.  “Everything we do on the city council, at the Climate Action Commission  for the Clean Energy Alliance, we've all been trying to encourage renewable energy so we need to make sure that it remains affordable and we also have to make sure it is affordable for those in our communities of need.” 

Following the Solana Beach resolution, the Chula Vista City Council and Imperial Beach Mayor Serge Dedina sent letters to Governor Gavin Newsom, both advocating for the CPUC not to make any drastic changes to the current net energy metering policy, which has been very successful in finally making solar accessible to communities of concern. 

In November, the City of San Diego, America’s second-best solar city, became the largest city in the state to weigh in on the proceeding.  San Diego Councilmember Raul Campillo, who was one of the first elected officials in the state to issue a letter to Governor Newsom advocating for a solar-friendly net metering 3.0 agreement, called out the importance of this resolution during his remarks.  “This {resolution} ensures that the City of San Diego has communicated its priorities to the state on this matter, and we cannot afford any changes to this {net metering} policy that slows down the process or limits accessibility to clean energy. This resolution speaks loudly and clearly that the City of San Diego wants to protect the environment, create good paying, high-skilled jobs, improve our energy resiliency and save ratepayers billions of dollars."

Shortly after San Diego’s resolution was approved, the City of Encinitas weighed in with a letter from the city council and Mayor Catherine Blakespear, which stated “the City of Encinitas was proud to be one of the first cities in the region to join a community choice energy program, San Diego Community Power (SDCP), and we have plans for our program to benefit the community in various ways, and net metering plays a role in our impact.  The solar fees that are being proposed by the IOUs are fees that SDCP will not be able to avoid, meaning that rooftop solar for our community choice energy program customers may still be inaccessible despite SDCP’s solar-friendly NEM rate, which is bad for our community members, makes it harder and more expensive for SDCP to reach 100 percent clean energy and takes away from potential program opportunities to benefit the community.” 

It is very clear that the organizations, elected officials and San Diego Community Power understand the impacts that a bad NEM 3.0 decision could have on the climate as well as local and statewide clean energy goals.  In all of the local advocacy in meetings regarding net energy metering, SDG&E has been the only opposition, citing concerns over equity, which we believe are not only disingenuous, but unfounded.  Very credible studies show that rooftop solar reduces rates for everyone because it reduces the cost of maintaining long distance power lines as well as wildfire costs associated with those power lines.  A recent study by Vibrant Clean Energy shows rooftop solar can save California ratepayers $120 billion!  Rooftop solar threatens the monopoly utilities’ profits, and that is their true motivation for advocating for reform. California’s investor-owned utility companies have not only tried making solar less accessible to all, they have also blocked efforts for community choice energy, community solar, on-bill solar financing and other tools to make solar more accessible. 

The battle over the future of rooftop solar in California continues, but we hope that the CPUC commissioners will consider all of San Diego’s advocacy surrounding this issue and that the proposed decision released next month will reject elements of the IOUs’ proposal that would make it harder for communities of concern to go solar, namely high monthly solar fees, decreasing export compensation and instantaneous netting. 

None of this work would be possible without the dedication and commitment from local advocates, the majority of which volunteer their time for this cause.  Rooftop solar is a key climate solution, and with the devastating effects of the climate crisis already occurring throughout California, now is the time when we should be discussing how to incentivize more people, especially in communities of concern, to adopt solar and storage.  A big thank you to the following organizations, schools, elected officials and cities: 

• San Diego Community Power 
• City of Encinitas 
• City of Chula Vista 
• City of San Diego 
• City of Solana Beach
• Mayor Serge Dedina
• Councilmember Raul Campillo 
• Carlsbad Unified School District 
• San Diego Democratic Socialists 
• San Diego Urban Sustainability Coalition 
• I Am Green 
• Citizens Climate Lobby San Diego 
• San Diego Green New Deal Alliance 
• Unitehere! Local 30 
• Associated Students of San Diego State University 
• Center for Sustainable Energy 
• GRID Alternatives San Diego 
• Climate Action Campaign 
• San Diego Climate Hub
• San Diego Coastkeeper 
• Environmental Centers of San Diego 
• North County Climate Change Alliance 
• Samuel Lawrence Foundation 
• Surfrider San Diego 
• Bike San Diego 
• Protect Our Communities Foundation 
• League of Women Voters San Diego 
• San Diego Green Building Council 
• SanDiego350 
• South Bay Sustainable Communities 
• Climate Reality Project San Diego 
• BQuest Foundation 
• Business for Good San Diego 
• San Diego Energy District Foundation 
• CleanEarth4Kids.org 
• Uptown Tavern 
• San Diego County Democrats for Environmental Action 

We appreciate all of our partners in this effort and would like to give a special shout out to Climate Action Campaign, SanDiego350 and San Diego Urban Sustainability Coalition, along with the Solar Rights Alliance, which have attended countless meetings and presentations to move all of the aforementioned efforts forward.  

More details about the NEM 3.0 proceeding can be found at www.HelpCleanEnergy.org. 

On November 15, the City of San Diego became the largest city in the state to weigh in on the net energy metering proceeding, which is currently underway at the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC).  A proposed net energy metering (NEM) decision is expected to be made by next month on the future rooftop solar agreement in California, known as net energy metering 3.0 (NEM 3.0).  

The net metering resolution, which urges the CPUC to create a structure that will keep rooftop solar growing sustainably while expanding solar access to low-and-moderate income communities, was approved unanimously by the San Diego City Council today after receiving unanimous support during the San Diego Environment Committee last month.  Local organizations SanDiego350, Climate Action Campaign, Protect Our Communities Foundation, CED Greentech and the San Diego Democrats for Environmental Action joined the Hammond Climate Solutions team in making verbal comments in support of the resolution today, emphasizing the importance of this decision in the middle of a climate emergency.  Last month over 60 people made comments in favor of the resolution. 

“Rooftop solar is a lynchpin in the city's legally-binding Climate Action Plan,” said Matthew Vasilakis, Co-Director of Policy with Climate Action Campaign.  “We need to incentivize rooftop solar and storage with a strong NEM program and paired investments in communities of concern.  That's how we build a climate resilient 100 percent clean energy system.” 

Councilmember Raul Campillo, who was one of the first elected officials in the state to issue a letter to Governor Newsom advocating for a solar-friendly net metering 3.0 agreement, called out the importance of this resolution during his remarks today. 

“This {resolution} ensures that the City of San Diego has communicated its priorities to the state on this matter, and we cannot afford any changes to this {net metering} policy that slows down the process or limits accessibility to clean energy.  This resolution speaks loudly and clearly that the City of San Diego wants to protect the environment, create good paying, high-skilled jobs, improve our energy resiliency and save ratepayers billions of dollars."

Beyond the obvious carbon emissions reduction, local grid reliability and cost savings that come from the increased adoption of rooftop solar and energy storage, the San Diego region has thousands of local jobs at stake with this decision.  Jake Marshall, Operations Manager with CED Greentech San Diego, a distribution company out of Mira Mesa, called in to support the resolution.  Marshall’s comment highlighted the potential massive job loss that could result if the industry is forced to slow down. 

“I personally employ 75 people in Mira Mesa, we have run the numbers and with the {investor-owned utilities’ anti-solar} proposals, our numbers will go down to 22 people.” 

The resolution states that the City of San Diego “supports a CPUC NEM 3.0 decision, which emphasizes the sustainable growth of customer sited solar electric and energy storage facilities in order to meet California’s clean energy targets, particularly residential customers in disadvantaged communities” while also advocating to “reject elements of any proposal which will stifle sustainable growth of customer sited renewable generating facilities including high monthly fixed charges and avoided cost models which insufficiently account for the societal value of customer sited renewable generation.”

The resolution includes strong equity provisions, and Councilmember Monica Montgomery Steppe highlighted the importance of making solar jobs more accessible to communities of concern. 

Council President Jennifer Campbell ended the discussion by calling out the intentions of the investor-owned utility companies.  

“It's clear the investor-owned utilities are working hard to hamper solar energy growth, which is very short-sighted of them, as they could utilize this extra energy obtained to provide energy for other people in geographic areas that do not have as much sunshine as we have.  The cost shifting that {the investor-owned utilities} are proposing will hurt our climate action goals, will hurt our green job growth and the affordability of those who wish to push solar on their roofs.  Unfortunately it seems that their immediate bottom line is more important to them than a cleaner, green San Diego in which all income levels can participate in our abundant sunshine.  Let the {C}PUC know that San Diego stands on the side of rooftop solar, especially in communities of concern, and all the benefits of it, from good paying local jobs to healthier neighborhoods and increased clean energy production as solar energy brings.”

Once again, the only comment that was not emphatically in support of protecting rooftop solar was from one San Diego Gas & Electric employee who urged the council to meet with the Natural Resources Defense Council, an organization who is known to side with the utilities on this issue (learn more in this blog post, How an Environmental Group Aligned with Monopoly Utilities to Squash Rooftop Solar). 

The City of San Diego weighed in just in time before the anticipated proposed decision by the CPUC in December, while other cities and organizations in San Diego county have already gone on the record in support of protecting access to rooftop solar and energy storage.  In September, the City of Solana Beach became the first city in the state to issue a resolution standing up for a strong net energy metering with a unanimous vote.  San Diego Community Power, the community choice energy program for the cities of San Diego, Imperial Beach, Encinitas, La Mesa and Chula Vista, also submitted a letter jointly with San Jose Clean Energy, which highlighted the fact that the net metering proposal by the investor-owned utilities would result in fees that community choice energy customers would not be able to avoid.  Earlier last week, the City of Chula Vista voted unanimously to send a letter and approve a resolution calling for the CPUC to create a policy in which solar is able to continue to grow, and this week, Imperial Beach Mayor Serge Dedina released a letter in support of a strong net metering 3.0 agreement. 

As the proposed decision by the California Public Utilities Commission rapidly approaches and the final decision expected by February of next year, local activists are hoping this resolution will lead to San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria weighing in as well to leverage his existing relationship with Governor Gavin Newsom. 

For latest information and up-to-date calls to action, visit our net metering toolkit at www.HelpCleanEnergy.org