CALIFORNIA, USA — Starting Jan. 1, PG&E power and gas bills will go up 12% or 13%, or roughly $390 more over the course of 2024 for a typical customer.
The California Public Utilities Commission, the agency that sets rates for power companies, approved a more than a billion-dollar rate hike for PG&E Thursday afternoon.
PG&E's monopoly territory is home to 17 million people and they already have some of the highest power rates in the country.
"We know families are struggling. We know that we are facing an affordability crisis, but the infrastructure needs upgrades," said John Reynolds, commissioner with the CPUC.
The upgrades are what PG&E says it wants much of the rate hike to pay for, but that's not good enough for some PG&E customers. PG&E has committed crimes and was convicted of 91 felonies in San Bruno and Butte County for causing disasters killing scores of people. They had 84 manslaughter convictions for the 2018 Camp Fire in Butte County.
"They've been diverting money for years, away from safety, away from non reliability metrics driven maintenance, in order to maximize their payouts to their investors," said Marc Noel, Butte County Deputy District Attorney and lead prosecutor on the Camp Fire case. "As a result we have a failing system and now they're coming back and they're saying we need more money to take care of all of these problems that we created, that we didn't cure with the money that you gave us before."
Loretta Lynch used to run the CPUC. She says her former agency can't be trusted to force PG&E to actually do the safety work customers are supposed to be paying for.
"We pay in the top 10% of all big utilities in the country because PG&E is spending wantonly, recklessly and negligently, and the PUC is allowing that to happen. The PUC does have tools at its disposal, even with some of the guardrails or restraints of AB 1054 that they could prosecute and go after PG&E. But the settlements that allow PG&E not to admit to any liability, show us that the PUC will not use those tools. And so yes, I have lost faith in the PUC and its ability to regulate, to investigate or to prosecute, and the only people who can fix that are our elected officials," said Lynch.
According to a news release from PG&E, the upgrades will be undergrounding 1,230 miles of powerlines in their highest fire-risk areas, replacing some plastic and steel distribution pipelines, inspecting 343 miles of transmission pipeline, strength-testing 43 miles of gas transmission pipeline and more. The upgrades also include increased electric capacity.
“We are committed to being the safe operator that the people of California expect and deserve. We appreciate the commission for recognizing the important safety and reliability investments we are making on behalf of our customers, including undergrounding powerlines to permanently reduce wildfire risk. Undergrounding is the best tool in the highest fire-risk areas to protect our customers and hometowns and improve reliability year-round at the lowest cost to our customers,” said PG&E Corporation CEO Patti Poppe.
As far as bill impact, a typical monthly bill will increase by about $32.50 in 2024, $4.50 in 2025 and decrease by about $8 in 2026, according to PG&E.
For a California Alternate Rates for Energy (CARE) customer, or customers who get a 20% monthly discount, a typical bill will increase by about $21.50 in 2024, $3 in 2025 and drop by about $5.50 in 2026.
The Utility Reform Network (TURN) issued a statement regarding the CPUC's decision on PG&E's rate hikes.
TURN is profoundly disappointed that the Commission ignored the Original Proposed Decision issued by the judge that found insulated overhead power lines to be faster, cheaper, and as safe in promoting wildfire safety, and instead adopted the PG&E–supported Alternate Proposed Decision, that was modified twice to sweeten the pot for Wall Street investors, at the expense of customers forced to pay skyrocketing bills," TURN said in a statement.
