Utilities

More than 1 million PG&E customers are behind on their utility bills as California lawmakers consider warring proposals to lower costs. After the state approved a series of rate hikes in recent months, will the company or utility regulators be held accountable?

For the past year, debate has raged over plans to impose new fixed charges on electric utility customers based on their incomes. The issue began with a 2022 budget "trailer bill," a process governors and legislators misuse to enact major policy changes without fully debating them.

California in 2014 decided undocumented people could qualify for LifeLine, a program that helps low income families afford internet and cell service. A decade later undocumented people still can’t get it.

High electric bills consumed 65% of a rural grocery store’s profit last year. Owners say they may close the store because of PG&E rate hikes.

California's utility regulators are exploring energy bill reforms that would structure charges based on household income. If done correctly, the change could lower bills for most Californians and shift the cost for maintaining the grid to higher earners who can afford it.

While advocates of regulating prices for consumer services and commodities say the practice protects the public, there's a flip side of also protecting the the finances of those who provide the services.

Other states in the U.S. are building formidable regional cooperation plans to safeguard their power grids, but California remains largely isolated. A proposal this year to bolster grid collaboration in the West was unsuccessful, but shouldn't be viewed as a deterrent to a critical step for California's energy resilience.

California governors and legislators routinely misuse so-called budget "trailer bills" to enact sweeping policy changes without the transparent processes that they deserve.

Environmental advocates uncovered ties from SoCalGas to the California Restaurant Association lawsuit that overturned Berkeley's ban on natural gas hookups in new buildings, asserting that the private utility improperly used ratepayer money to support the legal firm.

A new law, Assembly Bill 2316, requires utility regulators to emphasize lower-income households when it assesses new community solar proposals, making clean energy more accessible and providing savings on energy bills. But regulators need to craft the new rules soon to capitalize on the billions of federal dollars becoming available.