CPUC adopts TURN's recommendations to prevent utility shut-offs.

CPUC awards energy companies $61 million in unearned energy efficiency incentives.

TURN, community organizations and consumer groups demand that the CPUC act immediately to stop the rising tide of utility shut-offs.

Mark Toney writes in the San Francisco Chronicle that conservation and energy efficiency will save more energy than expensive, unproven smart meters.

PG&E's ClimateSmart program is about making PG&E look green, not making PG&E green

Governor Schwarzenegger replaced good legislation with poor executive order with no consumer protections, no green jobs and no environmental protections to benefit Californians.

Labor Day Call to save 1,000 Jobs from being eliminated by SoCal Gas' Smart Meter plan

Waxman/Markey Climate Bill: A Missed Opportunity Coalition Statement

Unbelievably, the CPUC voted to allow So Cal Edison to raise rates by billions of dollars. Initially, the energy giant claimed they needed to raise rates to keep up with California's rapidly expanding economy. In the current contracting economy, they claim they need to raise rates to prevent layoffs, a claim dissenting Commissioner Dian Grueneich said had "no basis."

A wish list delivered to the CPUC President Michael Peevey by his former employer, Southern California Edison, has re-surfaced in a proposal by Peevey to allow Edison to raise rates by over $2.1 billion.

TURN attorney Marcel Hawiger explains how Californians can get "More Green for Less Green" and encourage renewable energy that doesn't force taxpayers and rate payers to spend more.

TURN and its allies have won $115 million in refunds for Southern California Edison customers.

Unfortunately, the most reliable thing about PG&E is their greed. Despite all the extra money PG&E has already collected, it claims consumers in northern California must pay even more if they are tired of substandard service.

Higher utility bills are not the way to fight climate change.

Clotheslines vs. climate change institute- read TURN's editorial in the San Francisco Chronicle.

CPUC'S "CLIMATE CHANGE" INSTITUTE MAY CREATE MORE PROBLEMS THAN IT SOLVES

A law that prevents further experiments with electric deregulation in California is in peril. Today, the California Public Utilities Commission openly decided to ignore a clear legislative prohibition by voting to initiate an investigation into reopening "direct access," the latest nickname for deregulation.

The California Public Utilities Commission today bucked a national trend toward lower profits for regulated utilities, guaranteeing inflated profits for PG&E, Edison and SDG&E.

TURN exposes utility mismanagement of energy efficiency programs- CA consumers subsidize energy-efficient lightbulbs for the entire US while PG&E, Edison & SDG&E demand customers pay even more for CFL programs.

A Public Utilities Commission judge has agreed with TURN that Southern California Edison should refund $160 million to customers and has also ordered Edison to pay $40 million in fines. The refunds and fines are the result of fraud and manipulation by southern California's largest electric company.

The Utility Reform Network today won $35 million in refunds for thousands of PG&E customers.

Few reruns could be more unwelcome than a rerun of deregulation, and even fewer have been outlawed by the Legislature. But if the Governor and his representatives on the CPUC have anything to say about it, we'll all suffer through a remake of one of the worst chapters in our state's history, regardless of the law that prevents it.

Six years after their electricity deregulation scheme brought California to the brink of disaster, the greedy energy profiteers are back.

A judge at the state Public Utilities Commission today recommended that PG&E shareholders pay customers who were illegally back-billed $23 million in refunds.

The CPUC has granted PG&E a rate increase of $213 million per year, despite strenuous objections from consumer groups.

Thursday, Sept. 14, San Francisco -- TURN is demanding $118 million in refunds for customers of Southern California Edison, approximately $23 for each customer. TURN called on the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to order the refunds yesterday, in the wake of revelations of fraud and manipulation by southern California's largest electric company. Edison collected $48 million in profits for its alleged superior customer service in 1997-2003 but has now admitted that its performance incentive mechanism numbers were pumped up with false data.

Thursday, July 20, San Francisco --TURN today criticized the CPUC for allowing PG&E to charge consumers billions more in order to install "smart meters" in every one of their customers' homes. Installation and upkeep of the meters comes with a high price tag, but the benefits associated with use of the meters have not been proven.

Wednesday, July 19, 2006, San Francisco -- While PG&E urges customers to conserve in the face of skyrocketing temperatures, its response to skyrocketing electric bills is just the opposite. Already charging the highest rates in the continental U.S., PG&E has no intention of conserving customers' money. The company's proposal for yet another rate hike in order to fund a new jet, more executive bonuses and other luxuries has ignited howls of protest from customers.

June 19, 2006, San Francisco, CA -- Today the California Supreme Court ruled in favor of consumers by reversing a lower court judgment that Proposition 80, the 2005 Electric Consumer Protection Initiative, was unconstitutional. The Supreme Court noted that although Prop 80 did not pass, the issue of whether or not the initiative process can be used to confer additional authority upon the CPUC is a vitally important one.

June 5, 2006 -- Now that the verdict is in and Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling have been convicted of crimes unrelated to the California energy crisis of 2000-2001, the time is ripe for reflection on the enormous impact that a single company, Enron, had on the deregulation disaster that nearly bankrupted this state. While most of the public’s attention has focused on the various manipulative strategies, such as Death Star and Ricochet, that Enron’s traders employed to take advantage of consumers in California, the real story began much earlier.

May 25, 2006, San Francisco -- Today's announcement of a guilty verdict in the trials of Ken Lay and Jeffrey Skilling, while gratifying, is not justice for California. TURN, The Utility Reform Network, said today that justice for California consumers requires refunds and a commitment from the Governor to declare that there will be no more future attempts to deregulate electricity.

Opponents of Prop 80 hide true agenda

San Francisco ­ Consumer advocates and PG&E Company today announced agreement on a set of consumer protections that will help lower customers' winter heating bills. The proposals expand and improve upon the CPUC's recent efforts to mitigate the harmful effects of rising gas prices on consumers.

Two trials underway in California this week are grim reminders of the need for Proposition 80. In San Francisco, traders from Reliant will today face criminal charges for scheming to shut off California's lights in 2000/01. In San Diego, Sempra Energy is accused of conspiring to manipulate gas prices.

Oct. 24, 2005, San Francisco -- TURN, California's leading utility consumer advocacy organization, said today that rising natural gas prices must be addressed by a comprehensive and future oriented energy policy that encourages conservation, reduces fossil fuel dependency and prevents price spikes. In the face of Governor Schwarzenegger's failure to deliver such a policy, TURN has stepped into the void with Proposition 80, a consumer-backed initiative on the November ballot.

Proposition 80's objective is to say "never again!" to reckless energy policies. It puts California firmly on course toward a more reliable, stable and consumer-friendly energy future, and it does so by forbidding any future experiments with unregulated electric prices.

In 2001, Californians responded to the meltdown of the deregulated electricity market with unprecedented conservation efforts. But those efforts are threatened by "smart" meters - an experimental program that is no more likely to benefit consumers than the deregulation experiment did.

Sacramento, CA --TURN executive director Bob Finkelstein today told the Little Hoover Commission that the Governor's Energy Agency Re-Organization Plan is a blatant power grab that would make policy decisions less independent and cut off public participation. He said the plan does nothing to lower rates or create the stability and predictability California needs to put the deregulation disaster behind it. TURN, a statewide nonprofit membership organization with 30 years of experience in representing California's utility consumers, supports an integrated approach to energy policy over a political one.

San Francisco--Consumer advocates and PG&E customers today demanded an end to collection abuses by PG&E that have led to a wave of dangerous and costly shut-offs. Although the California Public Utilities Commission recently reprimanded PG&E for its failure to correctly bill hundreds of thousands of customers every month, consumers are still being harmed by the practice. TURN, California's utility consumer watchdog, called for a moratorium on shut-offs, enforcement of limits on back-billing and retroactive relief for customers who have already paid back-bills, in some cases after the customers had complained to the CPUC and not been given relief.

San Francisco--Ordinary consumers rather than shareholders of regulated utilities would benefit from President Bush's corporate tax cuts under a proposal presented to the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) today by TURN. Recent revisions to the Internal Revenue Code effectively cut taxes for manufacturers and other domestic producers, including energy utilities regulated by the California Public Utilities Commission. The potential tax reductions for the utilities are substantial- 1% of generation-related gross receipts in 2005 and 2006, growing to over 3% in 2010. In the past, the CPUC has ensured that such savings are passed on to consumers. TURN urged the Commission to take similar steps in response to the latest changes in federal tax law.

San Francisco--The Utility Reform Network (TURN) and Ratepayers for Affordable Clean Energy (RACE) have joined forces to challenge a proposal by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to subsidize imports of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) from Mexico to California by Sempra Energy. Sempra's plan to build an LNG receiving terminal in Baja is opposed by a broad spectrum of Californians, including environmentalists, clean energy advocates, consumers, internationalists and local communities.

San Francisco--The largest utility consumer advocacy organization in California today said it has been shut out of the Governor's office after the Governor failed to even discuss, much less respond to, consumers that want him to sign the bill into law, rather than follow through on his stated intention to veto AB 2006.

San Francisco--For the first time in recent history, a sitting California Public Utilities Commissioner has been formally asked to recuse himself from a vote. In an unusual motion filed late yesterday, The Utility Reform Network (TURN) and The Utility Consumers' Action Network (UCAN), California's established utility consumer advocacy organizations, jointly demanded that CPUC President Michael Peevey recuse himself from an upcoming vote on a controversial contract between Calpine and San Diego Gas & Electric. Normally, parties at the CPUC do not take this unusual step out of fear of Commissioner retaliation.

San Francisco --TURN today called on PG&E's overpaid executives to donate some of their unearned wealth to REACH (Relief for Energy Assistance through Community Help) and other assistance programs that help customers avoid life threatening shut offs during the cold winter months.

When it filed for voluntary bankruptcy PG&E virtually assured itself of a bailout. The question of how much of a bailout was up to the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), and the answer the CPUC came up with was much higher than it needed to be.

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.

San Francisco--An agreement between the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) and Pacific Gas & Electric Co. to overcharge customers $9 billion over the next 9 years has been rejected by a broad coalition of PG&E customers. The agreement is a proposed settlement between the CPUC and PG&E in the utility's bankruptcy case. Members of the coalition object to the agreement as "too rich." They support an alternative plan developed by TURN, The Utility Reform Network, which will permit PG&E to emerge from bankruptcy at much less cost to consumers while still accomplishing all of the stated goals of the CPUC/PG&E plan.

San Francisco--The California Supreme Court today embraced actions by the California Public Utilities Commission that deleted consumer protections in California's deregulation law. "This is a sad day," said TURN's executive director, Nettie Hoge. "The last official action has been taken to ensure that customers pay for every penny of deregulation's failure."