Public weighs in on proposed PG&E rate hikes
SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. (KTVU) - California regulators heard from members of the public Tuesday on whether to approve a proposed Pacific Gas & Electric rate hike.
The California Public Utilities Commission held the first in a series of meetings to allow feedback on PG&E's request to bill 16 million customers an additional $2 billion for the next three years to help pay for wildfire safety improvements and safety costs.
The utility's new CEO Bill Johnson listened to everyone who expressed their opinion.
The most constant theme from the 14 public speakers was to not impose the rate hike.
"This demonstrates the audacity of this corporation that puts profits over people to come and ask for increases," said Jessica Tovar of the Clean Energy Alliance.
"This demonstrates the audacity of this corporation that puts profits over people to come and ask for increases," said Jessica Tovar of the Clean Energy Alliance.
A second major theme was to bury the power lines.
"There is no living excuse for not having our wires underground," said Anne Brubaker of the SF Underground Lines Coalition.
Johnson agreed that underground power lines are not the cure to all problems. He said in the event of an earthquake the buried lines would be harder to find.
The third predominant theme was to make PG&E a publicly owned power provider.
"The Socialist Workers Party (SWP) calls for the nationalization of PG&E and running it under workers' control,” said Joel Britton of the SWP. "Just taking it over and running it is hard in itself. Plus, there's a lot of people invested in the company, and they'd have to be paid for their investment. So, it would be a monumental and difficult undertaking."
If granted, in December PG&E would get another $1 billion above current rates in 2020, $454 million in 2021 and $486 million in 2022.
Next year, that would add $10.57 a month to the current average PG&E gas and electric bill, currently pegged about $160, raising the monthly bill to an average of just over $170. By 2022, the bill would go to about $180 a month.
There are seven Public Participation Meetings scheduled around the utility's vast territory: Oakland (7/24), San Jose (7/25), Santa Rosa (7/31), Stockton (7/17), Chico (7/18), San Luis Obispo (7/28), Bakersfield (8/13) and Fresno (8/14).