New residential solar rules bad for consumers and environment

The California Public Utilities Commission killed the net energy metering for residential solar systems, which allowed you to send electricity to the utility and get it back at a later time at no additional cost. Its replacement, net billing tariff does not provide the ability to send energy to the utility and get it back at a different time at the same price. 

Going solar now requires one to include batteries, which increases the cost of a system. This has caused a reduction in the number of people buying solar systems. The California Solar and Storage Association’s executive director said that solar industry sales in the state are down by as much as 80% since the elimination of the net energy metering in April. 

Climate change is directly contributing to humanitarian emergencies from heatwaves, wildfires, floods, tropical storms and hurricanes, and they are increasing in scale, frequency and intensity. 

Installing solar on homes is one of the few things people can do to save our world from the effects of global warming. We need as much solar as possible, not less.

John Orfali, founder, Save a Lot Solar, Richmond

Groups other than the National Park Service have surveyed these fire-damaged areas and they contend that there is plenty of sequoia regrowth.

Removing what has survived the fire to make way for one, albeit important, species is not recreating a wilderness, it is creating a tree farm. We don’t want a tree farm in our parks. Monoculture is one of the conditions that make wildfires reoccur. 

In addition, taking more time to examine this issue and whether regrowth is happening is the work of decades, not a few years. Sequoias grow for thousands of years and wouldn’t even notice a 20-year delay. 

Please give some time and thought to preservation and don’t jump off the mark.

Janet Doherty, Sacramento

Regarding “Either Draymond Green figures it out, or costs Warriors another title shot” (Ann Killion, SFChronicle.com, Nov. 21): After reading Ann Killion’s piece on Draymond Green’s chokehold on Rudy Gorbert, I realize that NBA players are human and that tempers can flare during competition, but this game is their job, and people usually have to follow rules to keep their jobs. Maybe being paid millions a year entitles one to think that the rules don’t apply to them. 

I taught physical education at schools in Philadelphia, where basketball was king. Those kids idolized the pro players and imagined maybe someday becoming one. Perhaps Warriors coach Steve Kerr should also remind his players that they serve as role models. 

Just something for Green to think about.

I like Joe Biden. He seems like a decent man, and I believe he’s been a decent president, Republican nonsense to the contrary notwithstanding.

But he really is too old to be running again. Being 78 myself, I believe I can speak to this. I am tired, I ache, my memory is not as good. I cannot imagine taking on the enormous and consequential tasks of the presidency at my age.

There is also the very real Kamala Harris factor. Many, many people do not want her to be a heartbeat from the presidency. Doesn’t matter whether it’s racism, sexism or just some gut-level dislike, it’s real. She will cost a lot of votes in a likely tight race.

Democrats need a charismatic, younger candidate to challenge Biden, since he seems unwilling to recognize or accept reality.