Last year, Riverside County’s commissioners imposed a $450-per-acre, annual fee on solar projects in the county. The county is home to some of the largest solar projects being built in the world, and the fees the county could collect would be huge. However, the Independent Energy Producers Association (IEP) and the Large-scale Solar Association (LSA) allege that the fee is an illegal sun tax.

The organizations contend that it is illegal under California law. The organizations filed a lawsuit on Feb. 3 in Riverside County Superior Court asking the court to invalidate the fee.

Thus far Riverside County is the only county in California to enact such a broad measure, according to IEP Executive Director Jan Smutny-Jones.

“What is unique about this specific measure is it’s very broad. It’s not tied to any impact on the county or service that the county is performing,” he said.

Such fees are illegal under California’s Proposition 26, which passed last year.

“Proposition 26 prohibits the state or local entities from implementing taxes structured as fees,” Smutny-Jones said.

The county said it was imposing fees because they were impacting the county, and it was not getting significant revenues from the solar projects.

However, the county was unable to explain exactly what such impacts were, according to Smutny-Jones.

“Their arguments just didn’t hold much weight in the end,” he said. After all, the projects in Riverside County will bring 7,000 construction jobs to the county, with a payroll of $3 billion and represent a $5 billion investment in the county.

The fee could set a precedent that other California counties could replicate.

“The reason we’re engaged on this is it sets a very dangerous standpoint,” Smutny-Jones said. “This could impose taxes on not just the solar industry but on a more general basis.”

That could include fees for wind or geothermal projects and other energy projects, which IEP also represents, he said.

Smunty-Jones expects that the suit will be over shortly after it starts.

“This is a pretty straight forward legal question for the court,” he said. Eliminating the fee would help grow the county’s economy and help it create more jobs.