By Nancy Price, Multimedia Journalist

Recent decisions by the California Public Utilities Commission to reduce what utility companies pay Californians for electricity generated by rooftop solar are endangering the solar industry. In addition, those decisions could prevent the state from meeting its clean-energy goals, industry officials and an environmental advocate said Thursday morning.

They were on a webinar panel organized by the California Solar & Storage Association to discuss the impacts of the PUC verdicts. The impacts include reducing payments to solar households for their generated power and denying customers direct access to solar power generated at schools, small businesses, farms, and portions of multifamily housing. Instead, the power goes directly to the utility companies to sell back to the customers at retail prices.