California Globe reports that watchdog group CAL DOGE, led by gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton, alleges roughly $1 billion intended for California’s Solar on Multifamily Affordable Housing (SOMAH) program was diverted to Democratic voter registration and activism efforts. Citing SOMAH’s own reporting, CAL DOGE contends about $72 million had gone to solar installations as of 2024, leaving approximately $928 million “unaccounted for.”
What the program was supposed to do
According to the California Globe article, SOMAH was created by Assembly Bill 693 in 2015, authored by then‑Assemblywoman Susan Eggman, to fund solar installations on affordable multifamily housing using investor‑owned utilities’ greenhouse gas allowance proceeds, per an Assembly Floor Analysis. The analysis also described ongoing costs of $558,000 from the Public Utilities Reimbursement Account for the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to oversee the program’s administration and assess its success annually. It further noted that in 2015 electric utilities could seek CPUC approval to use up to approximately $167 million in allowance proceeds for certain clean energy projects.
The money trail, per CAL DOGE
CAL DOGE alleges the program has received roughly $1 billion while only $72 million reached installations by 2024, citing SOMAH reporting. California Globe also cites the California Post as reporting that since 2015 the program completed 269 projects worth $72 million.
Hilton is quoted by California Globe as saying, “$928 million has been stolen. Your money. Do you know where it’s gone? Voter registration. By leftist groups supporting the Democratic Party. It is an absolute scandal.” These are Hilton’s allegations; the article does not include responses from SOMAH administrators, the CPUC, or the organizations named.
Organizations named in the report
According to the California Globe’s summary of the CAL DOGE investigation, the California Environmental Justice Alliance (CEJA) co‑sponsored the legislation creating SOMAH and later served as a coordinating organization and liaison for community outreach under the program, operating as a subcontractor to GRID Alternatives, which administers SOMAH. The report states that GRID’s Chief Policy and Programs Officer Chris Walker also serves as SOMAH’s program director.
CAL DOGE cites a CEJA job listing instructing SOMAH staff to “co‑leverage SOMAH ME&O activities with CEJA’s activities supporting community needs.” The group also points to CEJA’s sister organization, CEJA Action, a 501(c)(4) that endorses candidates and mobilizes voters in the same communities where SOMAH‑funded outreach occurs. California Globe reports CEJA Action endorsed 24 candidates in 2024, 19 in 2022, and 14 in 2020, describing them as progressive Democrats, and quotes CEJA Action’s 2024 scorecard as calling for California to “stand as a leader of progressive resistance” against “the rising tide of fascism.”
The article states CEJA Action operates as a fiscally sponsored project of Tides Advocacy (now “Beyond Impact”), part of the Tides Nexus, and attributes to CAL DOGE the characterization that the Tides network has been described as “washing away the paper trail between its grants and the original donor.” California Globe also reports CAL DOGE’s claims that CEJA has never installed a solar panel, reported $10.7 million in 2024 revenue on its IRS Form 990, and runs both a Civic Engagement Project and an Energy Justice Project (which includes SOMAH) in the same communities.
What CAL DOGE wants investigated
Per California Globe, CAL DOGE is urging the CPUC and the state controller to audit SOMAH payments to CEJA and member groups, investigate fund separation between CEJA and CEJA Action, and bar organizations from receiving contracts under programs they helped create.
“State and federal dollars should not fund political activist organizations that perpetuate California’s one‑party rule,” CAL DOGE Director Jenny Rae Le Roux is quoted as saying in California Globe. “CEJA wrote the law that created this program, got the contract to run outreach under it, and then its political arm showed up in the same neighborhoods with voter guides. The CPUC must open a full audit.”
Oversight and who’s in charge
California Globe notes the CPUC was designated to oversee SOMAH. The article lists current CPUC commissioners appointed by Governor Gavin Newsom: President Alice Reynolds; Commissioners Darcie L. Houck, John Reynolds, Karen Douglas, and Matthew Baker, and summarizes their prior state energy and environmental roles.
