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In a startling revelation, CAL DOGE has accused certain groups of diverting nearly $1 billion from a California solar panel initiative towards Democratic voter registration and activism efforts. This bold claim has sparked controversy and raised questions about the program’s financial management.
The allegations were detailed in a report released on Thursday, which suggests that $928 million, originally earmarked from gas taxes and electric bills to provide solar panels for apartment buildings, was instead redirected to left-leaning organizations.
Established in 2015 through Assembly Bill 693, the Solar on Multifamily Affordable Housing (SOMAH) program was designed to be financed with up to $100 million annually from proceeds generated by cap and trade auctions. Its goal was to increase solar energy adoption in affordable housing complexes across California.
However, CAL DOGE has pointed out discrepancies in SOMAH’s financial records. According to their latest report, the program has only completed 269 projects, which amounted to a spending total of $72 million. This discrepancy has raised alarms about the fate of the remaining funds.
Steve Hilton, a Republican gubernatorial candidate who is currently leading in the latest polls, has expressed concerns over the situation. He has emphasized the need for transparency and accountability, questioning the whereabouts of the substantial funds that appear to be unaccounted for.
“$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.”
The report lists what CAL DOGE called the partner organizations of SOMAH, who were “double dipping on public funds to provide solar panels on apartment buildings.”
It continues: “But actually are building a left-wing activist machine in economically disadvantaged neighborhoods across the state.”
CAL DOGE Director Jenny Rae Le Roux said that when the program began Californians were promised it would lower their utility bills. But what has happened is the opposite.
Meanwhile everyone except who was in the program has seen their utility bills more than double what they were paying in 2015, she claimed.
Under SOMAH’s structure, GRID Alternatives is a non-profit that serves as a key program administrator on the team, while the California Environmental Justice Alliance (CEJA) is promoted as a long-standing partner and community-based coordinating entity for outreach that gets paid by GRID’s team as a subcontractor, CAL DOGE claimed.
CEJA’s related entity, CEJA Action, is a 501(c)(4) political organization that explicitly seeks to build political power and operates as a project of Tides Advocacy, according to CAL DOGE.
CAL DOGE said the political organization published voter guides, and mobilized voters of color in 2024, along with endorsing 24 progressive candidates for the CA legislature.
It claimed the “fiscal sponsorship structure and overlapping ecosystem is how public funds meant to inform tenants about solar benefits are indirectly supporting partisan campaign activity.”
Le Roux said the Trump administration pulled funding from GRID in August 2025, but claimed the money is still flowing in from California with no accountability as to what happened with those federal funds before.
CAL DOGE is calling on a full audit of the solar panel program outreach and education spending, including subcontractors and pass-through payments.
Calls to SOMAH were not immediately returned to The Post.