Source: Communications Daily | By Matt Daneman

The FCC order will increase phone service costs for hundreds of thousands of low-income Californians, the Utility Reform Network (TURN) emailed us. It noted that since the 1980s, the state has operated its own Lifeline program, which is exclusively funded by California customers and provides discounts on the monthly phone bills of low-income households. AB-1303 gives the CPUC "the flexibility to ensure that all eligible households can apply for California Lifeline," TURN said. It also gives consumers "more control over who their data is shared with.”

A state law barring the California Public Utility Commission (CPUC) from sharing information about Lifeline program subscribers with other government agencies, including immigration authorities, means the state can no longer do its own Lifeline subscriber verifications, according to the FCC. The Wireline Bureau ordered Thursday that the state could no longer opt out of using the National Lifeline Accountability Database (NLAD) federal verification system. "Going forward, federal processes will be used to conduct eligibility verifications and perform duplicate checks for federal Lifeline program applicants in California.”

Source: ABC7 KGO-TV | By Dustn Dorsey

But Lee Trotman, Community Director at The Utility Reform Network (TURN) says that burying the lines is the most expensive option, and that other less expensive options such as covered conductors and insulating wires is more cost-effective and also reduces wildfire risk.  Raising rates by using the most expensive option to mitigate wildfire risk is another cost that ratepayers will bear if PG&E has their way.  

According to PG&E, it has buried over 1,000 miles of lines in high risk areas and the plan is to bury 3,000 more.  Claiming that burying the lines almost eliminates the risk of wildfire at a cost of $3 million per mile, PG&E is expected to raise rates to cover these costs.  

Source: Broadband Breakfast | By Jericho Casper

In a statement issued Thursday, telecom and regulatory attorney for TURN Alexandra Green said the FCC’s decision will force low-income Californians to go through two separate eligibility checks, one for the state program and one for the federal, a change the group argues will add bureaucracy and ultimately raise the cost of phone service for hundreds of thousands of households. “The FCC’s decision to no longer trust California to do its own eligibility verification means that customers will have to be separately reviewed by each program,” Green said.  “The federal government's political disdain for California seems to be the driving force behind this order, which will only result in increasing the cost of phone service in both rural and urban areas,” she added.

The Federal Communications Commission on Thursday revoked California’s authority to run its own eligibility and verification system for the federal Lifeline program.  In an order issued by Wireline Competition Bureau chief Joseph Calascione, the FCC said California law AB 1303 has made it “effectively impossible” for the program’s administrator to comply with federal Lifeline operations and integrity obligations.

Source: The San Diego Union-Tribune | By Rob Nikolewski

“We do think (reducing the return from 10.23% to 9.88% is) a step in the right direction, but so much more needs to be done in terms of affordability,” said Mark Toney, executive director at The Utility Reform Network (TURN),  the Oakland-based organization that frequently weighs in on CPUC matters. TURN called for a return on equity of 9.5% for SDG&E. Toney emphasized that while the percentages that utilities earn are important, another crucial factor is the accumulated costs that power companies spend on expensive projects that get passed to ratepayers. And the the CPUC has final approval on whether those projects get the green light. 

Investor-owned utilities in California — including San Diego Gas & Electric — will earn smaller rates of profit on their infrastructure projects next year under a proposed decision that will soon go before the five voting members of the California Public Utilities Commission.  

In SDG&E’s case, what’s called the utility’s “return on equity” would drop from 10.23% in 2026 to 9.88% under the figures released late last week. It’s difficult to say what the lower rate would mean for the monthly bills that SDG&E customers pay, but the pending vote comes at a time when high rates have become a major concern across California and in the San Diego area in particular.

Source: Lake County News | By Little Hoover

Witnesses will include Elise Torres, energy team assistant managing attorney, The Utility Reform Network, or TURN; Liang Min, managing director of Bits & Watts Initiative, Precourt Institute for Energy [Stanford University]; Linda Taub Gordon, climate researcher and supervising attorney, UC Berkeley Human Rights Center; Masheika Allgood, founder, AllAI Consulting LLC; and Natalie Mims Frick, department leader and energy policy researcher, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Members of the public will have the opportunity to make comment at the end of the hearing. If you would like to make a public comment please use the "raise hand" feature in Zoom or email LittleHoover@lhc.ca.gov with your question and the phone number from which you joined the hearing.

The Little Hoover Commission invites the public to join them on Thursday, Nov. 20, at 2 p.m. for a hearing on data centers and California electricity policy.  This hearing will focus on framing the landscape around data centers and California's electricity system, and will feature expert testimony from academic, technological, ratepayer, energy and environmental perspectives.

Source: Legal Planet | By Elias Van Emmerick

Emmett Institute's Denise Grab, a clean energy expert, wrote at the time that “when everything is a priority, nothing is a priority.” Grab, who heads UCLA Law’s E-CELL project, was not alone in this assessment: NRDC, Sierra Club, The Utility Reform Network (TURN), and Cal Advocates all pushed for a discrete cohort of priority decarbonization zones.  

Here’s something to celebrate: the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) released its proposed decision designating initial priority neighborhood decarbonization zones.  SB 1221 is a law passed last fall that allows the CPUC to support “neighborhood decarbonization zones” to transition away from natural gas toward zero-emissions alternatives. Phasing out natural gas in favor of electrified alternatives is a vital step toward California’s ambitious decarbonization goals.

Source: Politico | By Noah Baustin

Undergrounding-happy utilities aren’t happy with the math.  “That method of calculating the [benefit cost ratio] is very disadvantageous to undergrounding,” said Matt Pender, Pacific Gas & Electric’s vice president of undergrounding and system hardening.  It wouldn’t be able to do that under the California Public Utilities Commission’s proposed ratio, which would pencil out for only about a third of those miles, he said.

GROUND RULES: Just about everyone agrees that burying power lines underground would be the best way for utilities to reduce wildfire risk. The only problem: It’s too expensive. California regulators are set to vote Thursday on a new rule to govern how utilities reduce the risk of their equipment sparking wildfires. It would set a cost-benefit ratio for utilities to calculate when it makes sense to spend money on undergrounding versus cheaper methods like tree-trimming and insulating above-ground lines.  

Source: CalMatters | By Alejandro Lazo

Mark Toney, who leads The Utility Reform Network and supported the transparency measure, has questioned whether data centers justify the costs they’re pushing onto ratepayers.  He warned of the centers’ “voracious consumption of energy and water, increased carbon emissions, and jacking up ratepayer bills.” 

California is a major hub for data centers — the facilities that store and transmit much of the internet. But just how much these power-hungry operations affect the state’s energy use, climate and public health remains an open question for researchers.  A new report released this week by the environmental think tank Next 10 and a UC Riverside researcher attempts to quantify that impact — but its authors say the report is only an estimate without harder data from the centers themselves.

Source: CalMatters | By Yue Stella Yu and Malena Carollo

AT&T’s real goal is to boost its bottom line, said Regina Costa, a Hacienda resident and telecom policy director for The Utility Reform Network, which led opposition to the bill.

Upon hearing her husband’s call for help, Cynthia Halliday came flying upstairs. He was rushing toward the outdoor deck, gasping for air. He was having a heart attack. Halliday held him and dialed 911 with her cellphone. The dispatcher answered, but within seconds, she said, the call disconnected due to poor reception. Halliday screamed for help, loud enough for her next-door neighbor Larry Williams to hear and dial from his copper landline. This time, it got through.

Source: Fox26 News | By Mayra Franco

Not everyone agrees with PG&E’s optimistic outlook.  Consumer advocates say the rate increase could still hit families hard over time.  Mark Toney, with The Utility Reform Network said, "In the past six or seven years, PG&E bills have already doubled. They've already gone up 100%.” He adds," This rate case is not just about 2027. It's about 27, 28, 29, and 30. At the end of 2030, if this is approved, the bills will be $42 a month higher or $500 a year higher.”  Toney urges residents to attend the hearings saying, "It is incredibly important for you to show up and say, no on this rate increase."

PG&E is giving customers a chance to weigh in on its latest proposal to raise electricity rates by 3.6%, but the company says you might not even notice the change.  State rules require PG&E to file a General Rate Case every four years. This process determines how much customers will pay on their bills over the next several years. The company submitted it to CPUC back in May.  For the first time in a while, customers can speak directly to PG&E about the proposed changes. 

Source: Canary Media Live Berkeley | By Julian Spector

Mark: I really appreciate being invited by Canary Media and being part of this conversation.  TURN fights for the cleanest energy at the lowest prices.  I like to say we want the most green for the least green and this is important because affordability and clean energy  need to go hand in hand.  We have to resist the people that want to split them apart and say “you either have to choose affordable and dirty or clean and expensive" and at TURN we reject that.  We fight for clean and affordable together!  These are absolutely some of the most trying times that many of us have seen in our lifetimes when it comes to all the attacks on clean energy policies.  When it comes to utility bills skyrocketing, and yet there is and are many glimmers of hope.

Canary Media is a nonprofit news organization focusing on the transition to clean energy and climate challenges.  On November 6th 2025 the Canary Media Live event in Berkeley was streamed live and Executive Director of TURN Mark Toney was interviewed by host Julian Spector.

Source: RTO Insider | By David Krause

In comments noted in the decision, The Utility Reform Network (TURN) said SDG&E has not demonstrated any need for additional funds over the amounts it received in its GRC to meet customer energization demands. TURN said that in March, “SDG&E stated that it considered it an ‘unlikely event’ that the utility would be ‘unable to accommodate the full load amount requested by the customer because of an upstream capacity constraint.’”

In a rare split decision, the California Public Utilities Commission has approved $51.2 million in additional funds for electrification projects for San Diego Gas & Electric customers to help the state reach its carbon neutrality goal.  Under the decision (25-04-015), SDG&E will create a new electric energization memorandum account (EEMA) for energization projects that will be completed outside the utility’s approved 2024 general rate case (GRC).

Source: Bay Area News Group | By George Avalos

PG&E’s electricity and data center plans have been met with skepticism by The Utility Reform Network, a consumer group also known as TURN.  “TURN is very concerned about data centers driving up electric rates for Californians,” said Mark Toney, TURN’s executive director. “It’s essential that those costs are recovered fairly and don’t cause electric rates to increase for households who are already struggling to pay their utility bills.”

PG&E is focusing expansion and upgrade plans in the San Jose area as officials predict the South Bay’s need for electricity will far outstrip a projected jump in demand within its service territory, the investor-owned utility’s chief executive said in a wide-ranging interview.  For PG&E, San Jose offers a confluence of land and demand. The city has plenty of available open space for a tech industry whose thirst for energy has soared.

Source: Fox26 News | By Dania Romero

Mark Toney with TURN, a utility reform network, says that policy makers waited until the 11th hour to release bill language. "No one got a chance to weigh in because it came out at the last minute. And that's the responsibility of all the policy leadership in California. This is not just a governor thing. This is a collective that policy leaders in California have a habit of releasing big bills at the last second," said Toney.  Toney says it was so last-minute, lawmakers had to extend their session to Saturday to get it passed.  

If you get your power from Southern California Edison, your bill could go up to pay for the Eaton fire damages.  The Eaton fire could end up costing more than what's in the wildfire fund, which could make ratepayers cover part of the difference.  

Source: Lifeline with Craig Roberts | By Craig Roberts, iHeart Radio Network

"PG&E is not even feigning embarrassment and coming straight for a 24.5% rate increase over the next five years.  Add that to what we went through over the last 21 months and it becomes a big ouch for every ratepayer’s pocketbook.  Joining me today in the studio is our friend, Executive Director of The Utility Reform Network or TURN, Mark Toney.” “What PG&E is asking for over the next four years is for your annual gas and electric bill to go up by $500 a year, $42 a month is what they’re requesting.   After all these rate increases we have had over the past few years, that is going to hurt a LOT of people” Mark Toney said. “Mark, when we include the price we pay at the pump, the price we pay at the grocery store, if you’re a homeowner did you just receive your tax bill, funny how Prop 13 limits property tax increases but at the end of the day, these customers for these rate increases might have to say ‘I don’t have it.'  Now what you’re asking me to do is to decide if I stop eating meat altogether, or choose which medications I need to have.” “I have more unwelcome news—only 50% of PG&E’s increases are within this general rate case request.  PG&# has another 10 rate increase proposals right now pending with the  Public Utilities Commission,  so each one of those is going to get stacked on top of this.  So we’re not just looking at $500 a year, we could be looking at closer to $1000 a year by the time we get to 2030.  Everybody, Craig, is looking at huge rate increases."

Source: Legal Planet | By Denise Gra

One of our three main areas of focus at the Emmett Clean Energy Law & Leadership (E-CELL) initiative is Ownership of Energy Resources: exploring how utility ownership structures affect cost, climate, and other outcomes. In June, we released a Pritzker Brief on this topic co-authored by our recent legal fellow, Ruthie Lazenby, as well as Mohit Chhabra of NRDC and Sylvie Ashford of TURN. That paper explored the theoretical underpinnings differentiating between publicly-owned utilities (POUs) and investor-owned utilities (IOUs) on the issues of affordability, clean energy, and reliability. 

Today, we’re releasing another report on this topic, delving more deeply into a case study comparing cost and climate metrics between one POU—the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP)—with one IOU—Southern California Edison (SCE)—who both operate in the same geographic region—Los Angeles County. Los Angeles County offers a unique opportunity to compare a POU and an IOU that operate in the same region with similar building types, similar state policy goals, and generally similar climates. With the geographic overlap between these two utilities, distinctions between them may be more likely attributable to the different governance models. 

Source: Live Insurance News | By H. Cutner

Ratepayer advocates have also voiced support for reining in the practice. Mark Toney, executive director of The Utility Reform Network, said hedge funds “will not bid on a claim unless they think they can turn it around for a larger profit.”  “We support strategies that keep the hedge fund profiteering structurally out of the system,” Toney said.

A new California law gives electric utilities the right of first refusal to settle subrogation claims tied to wildfires, a move poised to disrupt a lucrative market for hedge funds and other alternative investors. The legislation, signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom is part of a larger package designed to strengthen the state’s wildfire prevention and funding strategies.  The change targets the practice of insurers selling the right to sue utilities for wildfire damages to third parties.

Source: Action News Now | By Will Anderson

The program now includes all current and former foster youth aged 13 to 20 who were in foster care on or after their 13th birthday.  Non-minor foster youth can enroll independently, and authorized representatives can assist both minor and non-minor youth. Youth exiting foster care can continue receiving services for six months after turning 21. The updates are a response to a petition from the Youth Law Center with support from stakeholders including The Utility Reform Network (TURN), Verizon/TracFone, and county agencies.

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) has introduced significant enhancements to the California LifeLine Foster Youth Program.  Officials say the changes aim to broaden access to communication services for foster youth in California. The modifications were approved during the CPUC's meeting on October 9. They focus on ensuring that foster youth have reliable and affordable phone services to aid in education, employment, and building independent lives.

Source: Stateline | By Alex Brown

“When you have a mixed market with a lot of coal plants, it creates opportunities for the Trump administration to rejigger the rules to favor coal,” said Matthew Freedman, renewables attorney with The Utility Reform Network, a California-based consumer advocacy group. “In another reality, this would have sounded like a hysterical concern, but it’s pretty obvious where [Trump’s appointees to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission] want to go.” Freedman’s group pushed California lawmakers for protections that would have given states more flexibility to withdraw from the market, while also prohibiting “resource adequacy” mandates that could be used by the feds to prop up coal. While those elements were included in a Senate version of the bill, they were stripped from the Assembly bill that ultimately was passed.

For years, Western leaders have debated the creation of a regional energy market: a coordinated grid to pool solar power in Arizona, wind in Wyoming, hydro in Washington and battery storage in California.  The shared resources would meet the demands of 11 different states, bolstering utilities’ local power plants with surplus energy from across the region.

Source: GV Wire | By Bill McEwen

A nonprofit watchdog, The Utility Reform Network, said the new law is a win for consumers.  “California residents are facing an unprecedented affordability crisis, and AB 1167 goes a long way to holding for-profit utility companies accountable to spending ratepayer money to benefit customers, not to fill shareholder pockets. We thank Governor Newsom for his leadership and look forward to continuing to work with him to achieve utility affordability and accountability,” said Mark Toney, executive director of TURN.

After decades of taking it on the chin from public utility companies like PG&E and Southern California Edison, ratepayers scored a victory this legislative season.  On Saturday, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 1167, which ends using ratepayer funds for political lobbying, promotion, and other shareholder expenses. The new law also beefs up enforcement against investor-owned utilities that illegally spend ratepayer monies. The California Ratepayer Protection Act goes into effect on Jan. 1, 2026.  Media investigations into California’s monopoly utilities have revealed use of ratepayer funds to cover millions of dollars in inappropriate expenses.