PG&E Proposes New Rate Increase, But Says Customer Bills Won’t Rise — Yet
Source: KQED Public Radio | By Laura Klivans
On its own, the proposal, submitted to the California Public Utilities Commission, shows an average increase of 3.5% in 2027 combined gas and electric bills, about a $9 monthly jump. But PG&E said that the cost would be offset by deducting other charges from customers’ bills. The plan projects average annual increases of between 3.2% and 3.4% from 2028 to 2030 — about $9 more year-over-year than the current average utility bill. However, PG&E representatives cautioned that those figures could change.
Mark Toney, executive director of TURN, The Utility Reform Network, said touting just a small increase or rates that remain flat is disingenuous. “The rates that are currently being paid are grossly inflated and they’re artificially high because PG&E had such atrocious overspending on wildfire mitigation in 2020 to 2022,” he said. The company spent more than double what they were supposed to on efforts to reduce wildfire risk, Toney said, and customers are bearing the brunt of that. TURN and other consumer representatives argue investor-owned utilities are incentivized to overspend on capital projects, like hardening the grid against wildfires, because that type of investment brings in returns for shareholders. Instead of protecting power lines by insulating them, which is cheaper and faster, a utility may instead underground those wires, a more expensive and more time-consuming option.
