New CA legislation looks to fight back proposed PG&E rate hikes
(KRON) — With utility companies constantly raising rates, two Bay Area state lawmakers are proposing legislation designed to restrict how that money is spent. The goal is to make sure the money you pay them is being spent to benefit customers and not on things like political campaigns and advertising.
Proposed rate hike would give PG&E highest profit rate of any utility in the country
When you're utility bill comes each month, keep a lookout on what you are paying for and what you should not be paying for.
'We don't want the utility companies, the investor-owned utility companies, to be using ratepayer money to do political advertising, to do lobbying,' said California State Senator Jerry McNerney (D-Pleasanton).
Bay Area lawmakers in both the state senate and the state assembly are working on legislation to strengthen state law to do just that.
'Last year, PG&E, in their rate making process with the PUC, tried to get $6 million that was they spent on these PR campaigns, on these advertising campaigns. They initially tried to get it to be rate payers that paid for that,' said California State Assemblyman Marc Berman (D-Menlo Park).
Berman says the bill would prevent ratepayer money being spent on political lobbying, public relations, or shareholder travel.
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Similar prohibitions can be found in new legislation from McNerney. However, it would prevent utilities from shutting off power when air quality is unhealthy as well as require power be turned back on for those who have already been shut off.
For its part, PG&E says it's committed to stabilizing customer bills but says the 'proposed legislation would not lead to any notable or immediate bill reductions. They point out that current state law already prohibits utilities from using customer funding for political contributions and certain advertising. If the CPUC determines that any safety communications do not meet the criteria for recovery, shareholders would cover those costs.
Now, this is just the first step in the process for both of these bills. If they get the needed approval, it's likely they could get to the governor's desk sometime in the fall.
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