• What Happened: CAL DOGE released a bombshell report claiming $928 million meant to put solar panels on affordable housing was funneled into leftist voter registration and political activism instead.
  • Why It Matters: The group that helped write the law creating the program then got paid to run it, and its sister organization has been endorsing progressive Democrats and mobilizing voters in the same neighborhoods ever since.
  • Bottom Line: Only $72 million actually went to solar panels, California's utility bills have more than doubled, and nobody in Sacramento is being held accountable.

California promised your electric bill would go toward solar panels for low-income families. CAL DOGE says it went to Democrat voter registration instead.

A new report from California's Department of Government Efficiency reveals that the Solar on Multifamily Affordable Housing program, known as SOMAH, has received roughly $1 billion since its creation in 2015. According to SOMAH's own data, only $72 million of that money actually went to solar installations. That leaves $928 million unaccounted for.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton did not mince words. "$928 million has been stolen. Your money," Hilton said. "Do you know where it's gone? Voter registration. By leftist groups supporting the Democratic Party. It is an absolute scandal. Just the latest in the amount of money that's been stolen from you."

Here is where it gets truly infuriating. The California Environmental Justice Alliance, known as CEJA, co-sponsored the very legislation that created SOMAH in 2015. Then they secured the contract to run community outreach under the same program they helped design. CEJA has reported $10.7 million in revenue and has never installed a single solar panel.

CEJA's sister organization, CEJA Action, is a 501(c)(4) political group operating as a project of Tides Advocacy, an organization known for obscuring money trails between donors and recipients. CEJA Action endorsed 24 progressive Democrats in 2024, published voter guides in English, Spanish, and Chinese, and mobilized voters of color in the exact same low-income neighborhoods where SOMAH outreach was being conducted. Every candidate endorsed across every election cycle has been a progressive Democrat.

CAL DOGE Director Jenny Rae Le Roux noted that the Trump administration cut federal funding to GRID Alternatives, the program's main administrator, back in August 2025. But California money is still flowing with zero accountability.

"State and federal dollars should not fund political activist organizations that perpetuate California's one-party rule," Le Roux said.

CAL DOGE is demanding a full audit of all SOMAH payments, subcontractors, and pass-through payments. Calls to SOMAH went unreturned.

California promised lower utility bills. Instead, bills more than doubled while nearly a billion dollars quietly built a Democrat political machine. Now someone needs to answer for it.