Will Voters Say Yes to New Fire Taxes?
Source: Politico | By Will McCarthy and Emily Schultheis
Last November, dozens of fire-fighting measures — from wildfire prevention bonds to stopgap special taxes — appeared on ballots around the state, part of local governments’ response to the previous decade’s large wildfires that leveled entire towns and burned a quarter of the state’s forestland. Many passed, in both rural communities typically skeptical of new taxes and spending and dense urban areas where wildfire has not always been a leading public-safety concern. In Los Angeles County, voters approved Measure E, which by generating $150 million per year to raise equipment and staffing levels for county firefighters, now “couldn’t be more relevant,” as County Supervisor Kathryn Barger put it last week.
PG&E OVERSIGHT (2026?): After legislative efforts to supervise PG&E’s spending on wildfire mitigation failed last spring, Utility Reform Network director Mark Toney said he was “stunned by the power and influence that PG&E has regained in the state legislature.” Toney says an effort to deliver oversight via initiative is possible, a cause that could get a boost from speculation that power lines may have sparked some of L.A.’s blazes, although he noted his consumer advocacy organization would be unlikely to take a campaign leadership role.
Source: San Francisco Chronicle | By Jessica Roy
California has the second-highest electricity costs of any state in the U.S. Mark Toney, the executive director of nonprofit consumer advocacy group The Utility Reform Network, said high rates and fluctuating weather patterns can make monthly bills unpredictable. Electricity bills “have high volatility,” he said. “They can go up very quickly, before you know it, based on the weather that you really have very little control over.”
If you or another full-time resident in your home relies on energy for a medical need — for instance, if you use a respirator, oxygen generator, powered wheelchair, dialysis machine or apnea monitor, or if you need a refrigerator to keep medicine such as insulin cold, or depend on heating or cooling for conditions like multiple sclerosis or scleroderma — you are eligible to receive an extra monthly allotment of energy at the lower baseline price. Eligibility is based on medical need, not income.
Source: San Francisco Chronicle | By Mark Toney, Executive Director of TURN (contributor)
PG&E is seeking to charge California ratepayers billions for outstanding costs, which will soon show up on our electricity bills. The utility has also requested and is expected to collect on several additional pending proposals to raise rates over the coming years and has $1.05 billion sitting in memorandum accounts that will be billed to ratepayers. This includes billions of dollars for wildfire mitigation, grid upgrades and other investments — as well as the hefty profit margins the utility is allowed to collect.
PG&E claims its rates are stabilizing. The numbers say otherwise. According to an independent assessment by the California Public Utilities Commission’s Public Advocates Office, the state’s advocate for ratepayers, the average PG&E customer could pay $840 more annually by 2030, on top of the 69% rate increase during the past decade.
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.