While a regulatory battle over energy policy rages in Washington, D.C., the solar industry is raising alarms that the outcome has the potential to cripple rooftop solar in California and around the country.

A secretive, New Hampshire-based nonprofit called the New England Ratepayers Association petitioned the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in April to reevaluate the core tenets of net metering, a billing method that’s foundational to rooftop solar. While NERA argues the policy that many states have adopted unfairly benefits people who can afford solar panels, the solar industry claims NERA is simply hell-bent on wiping out competition to utilities.

“It feels very simple to me. This is just a complete, existential attack on solar,” said Dave Rosenfeld, executive director of the Solar Rights Alliance, which advocates for solar users in California. “And in just one fell swoop, it would devastate solar.”

For years, FERC has maintained that states have jurisdiction over net metering and that it would not take […]