Officials Tell of Shady Salesmen in Solar Field

This has been a banner year for high-pressure solar-equipment salesmen, according to law enforcement authorities.

But if the federal energy tax credits expire at the end of this year as scheduled, the “entire solar fraud industry will disappear,” notes John C. Porter, the deputy California attorney general who heads consumer fraud investigations.

Porter surmises that con artists are trying hard to boost sales before the credits expire Dec. 31. The federal credits allow homeowners to reduce their taxes by 40% of the cost of such devices as solar water heaters or solar pool heaters up to a $4,000 maximum. Porter’s office has launched 12 solar equipment fraud investigations this year, compared to none last year. The state is currently suing three of those companies for fraud.

Although the equipment sold by such high-pressure salesmen usually works, it is sold at prices that are many times normal retail prices. Porter said prospective purchasers are pressured into buying the equipment with warnings about the end of tax credits and graphs showing “horribly escalating utility rates.” Actually, Porter said, natural gas rates are going down, not up.

“I’d say there is a feeling among these companies to get all they can now, before the credits expire,” said Gary Tranbargar, deputy district attorney for Riverside County. He said his office this year has filed 11 suits against 10 companies for solar fraud.

Porter said he couldn’t estimate how much money is involved, but he said “many thousands of consumers” throughout the state are affected.

The House Ways and Means Committee recently acted to extend the credits three more years. If that legislation doesn’t pass, Porter says he thinks he knows what will keep him busy next year. “We’ll have to deal with the finance companies” that, working with the salesmen, offered mortgages to homeowners to help them finance the high-priced solar equipment, he said.