EDITORS, I. (2018, June 22). California Expanding Solar For Low-Income and Environmental Justice Communities. Retrieved November 15, 2018, from https://irecusa.org/2018/06/california-expanding-solar-for-low-income-and-environmental-justice-communities/

 

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) announced their decision to “increase opportunities for low-income households to go solar, lower their utility bills, and participate in the state’s growing clean energy economy.” The commission approved a 12-year solar rebate program for low-income homeowners living in disadvantaged communities, which expands on California’s long-standing Single-Family Affordable Solar Homes (SASH) program. The new rebate program  provides long-term funding for the SASH program, which has contributed to the reduction in pricing of going solar for more than 7,000 households, and provided 100,000 hours of solar job training for individuals seeking employment since 2009.

 

This relates to Environmental Science because affordable solar energy can improve the health and well-being for everyone, particularly low-income families and communities of color that are receiving the majority of fossil fuel impacts. It is also simply better for the environment as solar energy is a renewable source of energy that is sustainable and totally inexhaustible, unlike fossil fuels that are finite. It is also a non-polluting source of energy and it does not emit any greenhouse gases when producing electricity. I definitely feel that going solar could have an incredible impact on our environment because limiting fossil fuels would directly limit the amount of pollution and toxins in the air.