PG&E IS GETTING A BREAK BUT WON'T GIVE CUSTOMERS ONE

San Francisco--Facing $9 billion in overcharges over the next nine years, PG&E customers today demanded that consumers be treated more like the utility when they can't pay their bills. After amassing billions in debt, PG&E used threats and high-priced lawyers to get the CPUC staff to agree to bail them out. At the same time, consumers and advocates suspect that the number and speed of shut-offs have increased, and want assurances that consumers will be treated as generously as the utility has been.

TURN Senior Staff Attorney Mike Florio said that while TURN opposes any bailout, it has proposed an alternate to the settlement proposed by the CPUC that would save customers $2.8 billion and allow a decrease in rates. Florio said while PG&E complains about its deregulation debts, it's consumers who are bearing the brunt of deregulation's failure. Because many Californians cannot afford the rate hikes necessary to bail out PG&E, TURN is demanding a moratorium on utility shut offs during the winter months. "Who knows better than PG&E what it's like to be unable to make ends meet?" Florio asked.

"What's good for the goose is good for the gander. Consumers who have fallen on hard times should get the same consideration PG&E has received."

Layne Schneider, LIHEAP (Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program) Director for Community Action Marin, said her agency believes PG&E has increased the speed in which they move from an unpaid bill to a shut-off, even as the utility demands that the public pick up the tab for its own unpaid bills. "We are getting an increased number of calls from customers who are facing shutoffs" she said. "With winter coming this creates a life threatening situation. PG&E can certainly afford to give these customers a break."

Customers Michele Alesandro and Steve Wilkinson spoke about their own experiences with PG&E's policies, which seem to be shutoff first and ask questions later. "Why should the people of California be subjected to this type of treatment by a company that made a deal to be deregulated and then filed bankruptcy to avoid keeping their commitment?" Wilkinson asked. Schneider charged that PG&E is now refusing to accept credit card payments or third party payments from consumers who receive shutoff notices. "There's a huge double standard here" she said. Florio said TURN will press the CPUC and the utility to allow consumers every possible avenue to prevent a shutoff "LIHEAP and other assistance programs could be fully funded by a fraction of what shareholders and PG&E executives will gain under the bankruptcy plan" he said. "What we can't afford is to throw more money at PG&E."