Residents are Feeling the Pain of Record PG&E Bills, but there May be More Hikes on the Way
Source: The Press Democrat | By Marisa Endicott
By the end of last year, PG&E customers owed more than $650 million in unpaid energy bills, according to data compiled by The Utility Reform Network. Customers of California’s other investor-owned utilities are similarly behind by hundreds of millions resulting in a statewide 500% increase in back-owed utility bills since 2019. Nearly 182,000 households served by PG&E who fell behind had their electricity cut off for nonpayment in 2023, almost a quarter of which were never reconnected. Utility advocates and legislators say outreach from frustrated or desperate customers has reached a fever pitch. There’s concern, too, about how high electricity costs will affect the feasibility and buy-in for the state’s massive electrification push.
“I have seen and heard more outrage from everyday customers than I ever have,” said Mark Toney, executive director of The Utility Reform Network (TURN), a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization. “Every elected official I run into is telling me that they are just buried with calls from constituents.” Still, that doesn’t mean an immediate stop to rate hikes. Toney, of the utility reform group, noted that there are a number of rate increase requests under consideration by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC). In fact, on Thursday, March 7, regulators will decide whether to approve the collection of hundreds of millions of dollars from PG&E customers. That increase would allow PG&E to start charging for a portion of a larger proposal filed Dec. 1 by the utility that is still pending approval. If allowed, that could kick in as early as April or May. “It's a smaller increase between four to six dollars a month,” said Toney said. “But, at this point, every increase is just piled on top of what people are already seeing, and we're not done for the year by any stretch in terms of increases, I can guarantee you.”
Source: Benton Institute for Broadband and Society | By Kevin Taglang
During the 2026 proceeding, AARP and TURN argued that the telephone remains a preferred channel for older adults, lower-income households, and consumers with limited digital literacy—and, as TURN noted, for people who do not yet have broadband and are calling to find out what it costs. TURN cited 2023 American Community Survey data showing that "80 percent of adults with vision difficulty own a smartphone, against 62.7 percent with home broadband service."
If you shop for home internet service in the coming months, something on the screen may look different. For the past two years, providers have had to show you a standardized "broadband label"—a black-and-white box modeled on the nutrition panel on a cereal box, listing the monthly price, what happens when the introductory rate expires, the typical speeds, the latency, the data allowance, and each fee added on top. The label had to sit right next to the advertised plan.
Source: Washington Watch | By NECA
TURN, et al. said comments in this record show AT&T’s application to relinquish its ETC designation will not have positive effects for California consumers. They said if the FCC grants AT&T’s petition before the CPUC can finish its investigation, consumers will be left with inadequate or nonexistent replacement services. all replies available | public notice | order
In addition to reply comments listed in a previous edition of Washington Watch, replies were filed on July 22, 2026, on AT&T’s petition seeking forbearance from Section 214(e) eligible telecommunications carrier requirements within its California service territory.
Source: WAshington Watch | By NECA
TURN said this area of policy has been left to the states and Section 253 delegates to the states the authority to regulate to preserve and advance universal service.
The Utility Reform Network met with Commissioner Gomez’s advisors on July 16, 2026, regarding AT&T’s petition for a ruling that any California regulation that interferes with its ability to discontinue POTS is preempted by the FCC and petition for forbearance from Section 214(e) ETC requirements in California.
Source: Daily Caller News Foundation | By Dylan Kresak
“It is disappointing, but perhaps not surprising, that the same tech companies signing the Ratepayer Protection Pledge are simultaneously opposing efforts at the state level to force them to deliver on their promises,” Matthew Freedman, a staff attorney for the Utility Reform Network told the AP.
Trump expanded his voluntary, nonbinding Ratepayer Protection Pledge on Thursday, the Associated Press reported. Signed by 23 governors, 55 utility companies and 27 data center companies, the pledge asks tech companies to cover their own power costs, according to the White House’s official Ratepayer Pledge page.
Source: CalMatters | By Alejandra Reyes-Velarde
Mark Toney is executive director of the Utility Reform Network, a policy group that advocates for ratepayers. He argues ratepayer money shouldn’t pay for this kind of program at all. “The fact that schools need new HVAC systems has nothing to do with producing electricity, delivering electricity, or generating electricity,” Toney said.
In 2020, California gave schools an enticing opportunity: A ratepayer-funded grant program would let them assess the condition of their heating and cooling systems, then pay for upgrades based on that review. But in 2024, the California Energy Commission, which administers the California Schools Healthy Air, Plumbing, and Efficiency, or CalSHAPE program, decided tocut it short two years earlier than planned. As a result, only 172 of more than 4,500 schools whose assessments turned up heating and cooling systems in disrepair actually got money to upgrade them.
Source: Associated Press | By Josh Boak
In California, however, the industry opposes legislation designed to protect consumers from electricity price increases attributable to data centers, said Matthew Freedman, a staff attorney for the Utility Reform Network. "It is disappointing, but perhaps not surprising, that the same tech companies signing the Ratepayer Protection Pledge are simultaneously opposing efforts at the state level to force them to deliver on their promises," Freedman said.
President Donald Trump on Thursday had governors and electricity companies join a voluntary pledge to shield U.S. consumers from higher utility bills from data centers — a sign how the artificial intelligence build-out has become a lightning rod of controversy before the midterm elections.
Source: Washington Watch | By NECA
TURN said this area of policy has been left to the states and Section 253 delegates to the states the authority to regulate to preserve and advance universal service. TURN also said while AT&T Phone- Advanced has been approved in other states, none have a comparable topographical range or similar extreme weather events to California. Additionally, TURN said it had some preliminary concerns about the June 2026 E-Rate NPRM and urged the FCC not to let E-Rate become a victim of its own success.
The Utility Reform Network met with Commissioner Gomez’s advisors on July 16, 2026, regarding AT&T’s petition for a ruling that any California regulation that interferes with its ability to discontinue POTS is preempted by the FCC and petition for forbearance from Section 214(e) ETC requirements in California.
Source: Communications Daily | By Matt Daneman
In a docket 22-2 filing last week recapping meetings with the offices of Chairman Brendan Carr and Commissioner Olivia Trusty, the Utility Reform Network said labels will be less effective if the FCC drops the requirement to display them online in full next to a plan that a consumer could purchase. Cutting the machine-readability requirement, meanwhile, hurts people who rely on screen readers and other assistive technologies, the group said. It also urged the commission to keep fees and state and local taxes broken out into their own line items.
Consumer advocacy groups and others are expressing concern that the FCC's proposed changes to its broadband consumer label rules focus heavily on easing the requirements for providers when the greater problem is their widespread lack of compliance.
Source: Fierce Network | By Linda Hardesty
Johnston said, “There are people that get paid a lot more than me to read those tea leaves, and at this point, it is going to be very difficult to say.” He said the FCC will have to take more comments and write an order and get it published in the Federal Register before it can then be challenged. And the two current lawsuits in California are only just beginning.
Petitions and appeals are flying between AT&T and government groups as AT&T accelerates its agenda to get out of the landline telephone business in California. But AT&T hasn’t provided data to prove that its alternative connectivity solution will definitely work in the most remote locations of the state, according to a consumer advocacy group.
Source: ARS Technica | By Jon Brodkin
California told the FCC that AT&T is lying when it claims that state rules prevent it from replacing copper with fiber. The Utility Reform Network, an advocacy group in California, told the FCC that AT&T’s wireless home phone service is “an ill-suited replacement for existing legacy infrastructure.”
California can keep enforcing rules that require AT&T to offer basic phone service to new customers in its wireline territory, following a federal judge’s ruling last week. AT&T sued California in May in a bid to end the state’s Carrier of Last Resort (COLR) rules that require it to offer telephone service to any potential customer in its territory. AT&T asked for a preliminary injunction that would prevent California from enforcing the COLR rules while the litigation continues.