A solar fade-out

WE’VE SAID IT BEFORE: Ballot initiatives are a bad way to make law. They tend to be sloppily written and to favor narrow interests, yet once filed, they’re almost impossible to fix. Better public policy usually arises through legislation, which can be shaped and amended in response to debate.

So we’ve said. Then along comes another good idea, like encouraging the use of solar power, which gets trapped in the maw of Sacramento politics. Once again, we are reminded why the state’s voters sometimes have to take matters into their own hands.

SB 1 would have required builders to offer solar power as an option for home buyers. The $15,000 cost would have been partly offset by a $5,000 rebate from the state -- funded by a modest fee on utility bills -- and some federal tax incentives. The rebates would have been phased out over years, by which time it was hoped that the solar-energy momentum would have been strong enough to be self-sustaining.

Most people think of such green legislation as the kind of quixotic scheme Democrats love, and in fact it was sponsored by Sen. Kevin Murray (D-Culver City). But Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R-Veto) supported it from the beginning, and it had broad bipartisan support. That is, until it got caught up in the Democratic leadership’s fight with Schwarzenegger over his special election, and the labor unions got involved. Late Thursday, the bill fell victim to several problematic amendments, particularly one requiring employers to pay the so-called prevailing wage on all commercial solar projects.

Schwarzenegger’s office said the amendments rendered the bill unacceptable, and it’s hard to disagree. The new provisions would have increased the cost of solar power and disrupted the delicate balance of incentives struck in the bill.

Big labor hijacked a needed solar power initiative that would have benefited both workers and consumers. A thriving solar-power industry would provide jobs for solar installers and electricians for decades to come, and place this state’s contractors at the forefront of the market. And, as energy prices rise as supplies are squeezed from all directions, a bill like this makes ever more sense: Solar energy is a renewable resource that could actually save Californians money.

Californians, unsurprisingly, seem to realize that. A recent poll by the Public Policy Institute of California found that three-fourths of the state’s residents approved of the bill. Which leads to the choice that faced legislators and the governor: They should have worked out their differences and taken credit.

The governor says he will try to enact a similar incentive plan through regulatory changes. If that plan stalls, the best option -- and we can’t believe we’re saying this -- may be for the matter to go straight to the voters as a proposition. When lawmakers show themselves unequal to the task, the initiative process starts looking pretty good.