By Malena Carollo, CalMatters<

The California Supreme Court today sided with environmental groups in a case seen as pivotal for the proliferation of rooftop solar power in California.

In a unanimous vote, justices told a lower court to revisit a ruling that upheld reduced payments to solar panel owners for selling excess power back to utility companies. The lower court “erred by relying on [a] highly deferential approach” to reviewing decisions by state utility regulators, Justice Leondra Kruger wrote in the decision. The lower court used a standard dating to before the state legislature expanded judicial review of the regulators’ decisions more than 25 years ago, she wrote.

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