May 10, 2018
The second paragraph of an article on a new requirement in California — that all new homes have solar power — told readers:
“It will add thousands of dollars to the cost of home when a shortage of affordable housing is one of California’s most pressing issues.”
It then added:
“That made the relative ease of its approval — in a unanimous vote by the five-member California Energy Commission before a standing-room crowd, with little debate — all the more remarkable.”
The piece then goes on to explain that the energy savings are likely to far exceed the additional costs of the solar installations over the life of a standard mortgage. Given this evidence, it might have been reasonable for the second paragraph to say something like:
“In spite of increasing construction costs, the savings on energy likely mean that the requirement will reduce the cost of home ownership, which is an important issue given the shortage of affordable housing in California.”
That might have left readers with a different view of the new regulation.
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