Groups team up to combat fast-rising PG&E electric and gas bills

OAKLAND — Consumer groups, politicians, labor unions and advocacy organizations have teamed up to combat fast-rising increases in PG&E monthly bills and demand more accountability from the utility behemoth.

FAIR California, as the diverse coalition is called, has banded together just ahead of a vote by state regulators on Thursday that’s expected to bestow on PG&E the go-ahead to shove monthly power bills higher — once again — starting in January.

“We have to create a sufficiently substantial counterweight to the massive political power of PG&E, its investors and its political allies,” Sam Liccardo, San Jose’s former mayor, and one of the principal leaders of FAIR California, said in an interview with this news organization.

For decades, The Utility Reform Network, or TURN, has waged a fight nearly single-handedly to oppose rising utility bills delivered by California’s three major utilities, PG&E, Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric.

Now, yet another vote looms at the state Public Utilities Commission that is poised to hand over authorization to PG&E to impose a fresh round of higher monthly bills early next year.

“We need to stop the sky being the limit for PG&E requests for rate increases, and the sky being the limit to how much the CPUC can approve,” said Mark Toney, TURN’s executive director.

The opposition to PG&E’s rising electric and gas costs has emerged at a time when PG&E monthly bills have soared skyward at a far faster pace than the brutally high inflation rate in the Bay Area.

“What we need is legislation that caps annual rate increases to no more than the cost of living allowance received each year by people on Social Security,” Toney said. “Make PG&E live within a budget like its customers have to.”

The grim prospect of higher utility bills has arisen at the same time that the state PUC’s Public Advocates Office has detailed the rise in electricity bills for the three major investor-owned utilities in California, including PG&E.

Over a roughly three-year period that ended this summer, PG&E bills for the average residential customer have hopped 38% higher, or an average of 12.7% a year, the PUC public advocates reported.

Yet over that same approximately three-year stretch, the Bay Area inflation rate, as measured by the consumer price index, rose 11.7%, according to this news organization’s review of reports from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. That works out to an average yearly increase of 3.9% in the Bay Area inflation rate.

PG&E electricity bills have also skyrocketed over a recent 12-month period when compared with inflation.

The cost of electricity provided by utility companies in the Bay Area — essentially a proxy for PG&E monthly electric bills — rocketed higher by 12.3% in the region, during the one-year period ending in August, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported.

“We are working to keep overall customer costs at or below assumed inflation, between 2% and 4%,” said Mike Gazda, a spokesperson for PG&E.

Yet in the view of the coalition, PG&E’s ability to wield its influence has helped pave the way for seemingly relentless increases in utility costs.

“PG&E has been prevailing in nearly every battle at Sacramento and the PUC for decades,” Liccardo said. “It’s critical for a broad coalition of residents and businesses to speak together, to work together. This is essential after the rapid acceleration of rate increases that we’ve seen from PG&E in recent years.”

The state PUC on Thursday is slated to consider two options for PG&E’s general rate case proposal. Both options would shove monthly PG&E bills higher.

“PG&E’s general rate case proposal focuses on continued safety improvements for our customers and hometowns,” Gazda said in comments emailed to this news organization. “More than 85% of our proposed increase in revenues is for reducing risk in gas and electric operations.”

The first option the PUC is considering this week would increase bills for the average residential customer who receives combined electric and gas services from PG&E by $31.13 a month. Electric bills would jump by $22.37 a month while natural gas bills would increase by $8.76 a month.

An alternate proposal floated by PUC Commissioner John Reynolds would increase average residential monthly bills by $25.25 a month. Electric bills would jump by $18.59 a month while natural gas bills would increase by $6.66 a month.

The first option would cause monthly bills to soar by 12.5%. The alternative option would cause bills to hop higher by 9.9%. In both of these instances, PG&E bills would rocket higher at a much faster pace than the current inflation rate.

“TURN has fought the good fight,” LIccardo said. “TURN is doing great work. But PG&E has so many resources and incredible power, it takes all of us to stand up to the bully.”