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Solar Scam: How California Turned “Green Energy” Into a Slush Fund for Activism, Rate Hikes, and Tree-Cutting

New report alleges $900M taken from solar panel program and pumped into Democratic Party voting activism.

CAL DOGE, California’s Department of Government Efficiency initiative led by Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton, released a report alleging that $928 million from the Solar on Multifamily Affordable Housing (SOMAH) program—funded by gas taxes and electric bills—has been diverted to Democratic voter registration and leftist activism instead of solar installations.

CAL DOGE said that according to SOMAH’s latest report they have completed only 269 projects for a total of $72 million.

…The report lists what CAL DOGE called the partner organizations of SOMAH, who were “double dipping on public funds to provide solar panels on apartment buildings.”

It continues: “But actually are building a left-wing activist machine in economically disadvantaged neighborhoods across the state.”

Meanwhile, the California solar power industry is facing challenges. Changes to the Net Energy Metering Program in 2023 reduced the amount of money solar-power homeowners received for energy they sold back to the grid by 75%.

Demand for rooftop solar fell…unexpectedly. And there has been no rebound.

More than 17,000 solar jobs were lost according to CALSSA, with demand falling 80% post-implementation and numerous companies filing for bankruptcy.

The solar market contracted 31% year-over-year in 2024, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA). This decline threatens California’s mandate to achieve 100% carbon-free electric energy by 2045, a goal that requires solar energy to account for more than half of that generation.

“We haven’t seen a rebound in the market two years after NEM 3.0 went into effect, so we really need to increase the rate of rooftop solar installation,” Brad Heavner, executive director of the California Solar & Storage Association (CALSSA), said in an interview with techxplore after the ruling. “Something has to happen and the environment just got even more challenging.”

To round out the news describing the total disaster related to California’s solar energy programs, there is a proposal for the Coyote Creek Agrivoltaic Ranch solar project in eastern Sacramento County that is causing much controversy in the impacted community.

There, developers plan to remove about 3,493 mostly blue oak and other native trees across roughly 3,000 acres of oak woodlands, grasslands, and vernal pools… all in the name of “green energy”.

When politicians hide partisan organizing and bloated bureaucracy behind the feel‑good language of “green energy,” they don’t promote solar power, but weaponize it by raiding funds slated for installations to use for leftist activism, yanking away promised rooftop savings with mid‑stream rule changes, and even clear‑cutting native oak woodlands for industrial solar fields.

All the confiscated wealth in the world won’t be sufficient to meet the greed of politicians and their constituents, nor will it produce anything of value.