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.
Back in the 1980’s, when I fled Michigan winters for Southern California, the chief money-making entities were aerospace, oil production, and entertainment.
Sadly, the progressive culture and business-strangling regulatory environment created by activist bureaucrats has pretty much gutted all those profitable endeavors within the state.
Therefore, as the California budget deficit expands, billionaires flee, and industries move to other states, fraud is becoming the go-to source of funding those in power who created the environment that is toxic to honest enterprises.
I recently reported that Dr. Mehmet Oz, the head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), was reviewing the state’s use of Medicaid funding. The grift was so flagrant that Oz demanded California pay back $1 billion.
Now, 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.
Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton, who has maintained his lead in the race in the latest poll, said he wants to know where the rest of the money went.
…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.”
$900M taken from solar panel program and pumped into Dem. voting activism, CAL DOGE claims https://t.co/25uWUQU9FU pic.twitter.com/BhToa9MJgb
— New York Post (@nypost) February 27, 2026
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”.
Many environmental groups oppose the project, along with local Native American tribes, citing the area’s grasslands, protected species and old-growth oak trees.
“I’m here today to voice my opposition to the Coyote Creek solar project. Should it move forward, it would result in irreparable harm and desecration to cultural resources, including village sites, burials, habitat for our plant and animal relatives, as well as the destruction of oak trees so critical to this unique cultural landscape,” said Malissa Tayaba, vice chair of the Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians.
Gavin Newsom’s California is so committed to saving the environment, they are clearcutting 3,493 mature/old-growth oak trees in native woodlands, grasslands, and vernal pools to make way for 3,000 acres of solar panels pic.twitter.com/InZFwyxG1j
— Kevin Dalton (@TheKevinDalton) January 14, 2026
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.
In conclusion, manipulating people into “going solar” is bad for honest government, bad for families watching every dollar, and bad for the environment itself.
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Comments
Even if these programs are above board there is going to be tremendous kickback to the democrats who put these programs in place in the form of campaign contributions. While this maybe perfectly legal I consider it immoral. It needs to be banned in some fashion.
The same can be said for public labor unions who kick back money to democrats who hire them and raise their salaries. Again this is all legal and immoral. None of it should be allowed though.
Oil companies do the same in exchange for oil subsidies.
The system is pretty corrupt all around.
I hope you’re right about kickback. But with ballot stuffing, making “instant” citizens and media’s inability to recognize that the democrat politicians are the ones who are making these insane decisions, I have my doubts. I hope CA people find a way to stop this insane and totally destructive “energy” project.
Anybody want to bet the company hired to cut down the oaks is a political pal of the Dem party, and will *charge* the State for the task, then turn around and *sell* the logs under the table to another political pal for lumber with the money vanishing into familiar pockets? Old growth oak is *expensive*
Scum
So many hours in my neighborhood have solar panels
We’ve had some large hail storms
I’ve taken some joy in that
Does their homeowners insurance pay for the hail damage, thereby increasing your premiums?
I rejected rooftop solar for the benefit of my neighbors. It was only a little better than break even anyway.
“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%.”
The racket here, which CA surprisingly ended (but most other States have not), is that if a homeowner or private business produces more electricity with their (taxpayer and ratepayer subsidized) solar panels the electric distribution company that services them is required by law to buy that energy – which they then sell to other people on their system.
Each of these individuals essentially becomes a wholesale power supplier.
The scam is (or, in CA’s case WAS) that the distribution electric companies are required to buy that electricity at the RETAIL price. Which means they are then distributing it and selling it for $0 profit – and simply having to eat the cost of providing this service.
Just one of a million ways in which “green” energy is a total scam.
The utility does NOT ‘eat the cost’
Any loss they incurred is passed along to the consumer.
Yes my Californian family was complaining about the pay cut.
I heard from an engineer that the grid was designed as a one way street and forcing it into a two way road is inefficient. I’ve never seen anything else on that though.
“But actually are building a left-wing activist machine in economically disadvantaged neighborhoods across the state.”
ACORN has entered the chat…
Here in RI, the rooftop solar panels have been under a foot of snow or more for most of the winter. I can’t imagine they’re very efficient.
Cutting down trees to make room for solar panels only make sense to a few bureaucrats.
My local REC really pushed rooftop solar. At one point, it made up 10% of the energy delivered. Then they figured out they could build out their own solar fields and stick the members with the bill. They are now 100% daytime solar and not accepting anymore net metering customers.
Creating (D) slush funds is what Obama defines as “investing in infrastructure.”
You think a few old oaks and vernal pools will stop a solar “farm?” It would stop you from building a home, but not one of these ugly things.
To wit: Even the unique and beautiful Joshua trees are not safe.
“Avantus, a renewable energy company, is clearing over 3,500 protected Joshua trees in the Mojave Desert near Boron and Desert Lake, California, to build the Aratina Solar Project, a 530-megawatt solar-plus-storage facility. The project, approved by Kern County and granted an exemption from standard Joshua tree protections by California’s Fish and Game Commission in 2020, will generate electricity for approximately 180,000 homes in coastal areas, not the nearby impoverished communities.
Local residents, including nurses and longtime residents like Roy Richards and Melanie Richardson, have protested the destruction, citing environmental harm, health risks from valley fever (linked to construction dust), and the loss of iconic desert landmarks. Soil samples near the site have tested positive for the fungus that causes valley fever. A petition against the project has gathered over 52,000 signatures, arguing that such clean energy development should not come at the cost of irreplaceable natural treasures.
While Avantus claims it is working with state wildlife officials and implementing the Onyx Conservation Project—a separate effort to protect over 80,000 acres of Western Joshua Tree habitat—the company has also been criticized for shredding trees onsite to minimize visual evidence of destruction. The project has sparked a broader debate over the trade-offs in California’s clean energy transition, balancing climate goals with the preservation of endangered species and rural communities. “
Liberal playbook: all money is liberals money.
so none of this is new nor unexpected
it would be unexpected if the majority of tax payers actually took to the streets and wouldnt allow their reps to sleep comfortable if they continued to send money to these programs
btw,,,I always accused musk of cheating with this and nothing ever changed my mind ..doge notwithstanding
I agree that this is one area in which Musk is being a fool. He should be working on nuclear instead.
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