Source: The San Francisco Standard | By Kevin V. Nguyen and Kevin Truong

Mark Toney, executive director of The Utility Reform Network, said just like property taxes and insurance costs, utilities are becoming a more significant part of the operating cost of homeownership. “A mortgage for the most part is predictable over time; you can budget for that,” Toney said. “The one thing you know about a utility bill is that it will escalate year after year.”

An analysis from Redfin found that the salary necessary to afford a median-priced home in the Bay Area is $404,332 a year, a nearly 25% increase from the year before. A scan through Zillow confirms that math—the average price for a single-family home remains stubbornly well over $1 million. Paying for the upfront price of a home is still a buyer’s primary concern. But now, because of factors mostly outside of homeowners’ control, auxiliary costs—like utilities, property taxes, home insurance and maintenance work—are threatening to overtake already hefty monthly mortgage payments.

Source: The OC Register | By Teri Sforza

The largest group getting intervenor comp, by far, is TURN. It requested $26.4 million between 2020 and early 2024, and was awarded $24.8 million. Over that time, it has saved Californians hundreds of millions of dollars, its accounting shows. In a typical year, its legal staff of 12 attorneys and five policy analysts work on about 100 proceedings at the PUC. For example, TURN recently: Helped win a ruling preventing SDG&E from recovering $514 million from customers that it spent on wildfire mitigation before a reasonableness review by the PUC. Helped win a ruling preventing Edison from recovering $85 million from customers that it spent on tree trimming in non–high fire risk areas. Helped win $400 million in savings for PG&E, SCE, SoCal Gas and SDG&E ratepayers by getting PUC to reduce “Cost of Capital” profit rates (more on that in a minute)…

Electric rates, gas rates, water rates — they go up. And up. And up. Policing these regularly scheduled consumer agonies — or rubber-stamping them, as critics often charge — is the job of the California Public Utilities Commission. This powerful regulator is charged with ensuring that rate hikes and policy decisions are fair and justified

Source: Los Angeles Daily News | By Brooke Staggs

Ever-increasing rates are why Mark Toney, executive director of The Utility Reform Network, or TURN, said most people likely haven’t even noticed the climate credits they’ve received on their gas and electric bills over the past decade. The utility reform group TURN is backing a bill from Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi, D-Torrance, that would use revenue from cap-and-trade to create a Climate Equity Trust Fund. The idea, Toney said, is to have utilities use money from that fund to help, say, build out electric charging stations for trucks in Ontario rather than having Edison pass those costs along to all ratepayers on their monthly bills. Something’s gotta give when it comes to utility prices. So Toney said building on the successes of the cap-and-trade program just makes sense.

In April, Southern California Edison customers will see an $86 credit automatically appear on their monthly bill, while Southern California Gas customers will get a credit of $73. Then, in October, Edison customers will see their bills drop by another $86. Similar rebates are being doled out this year to customers of investor-owned utilities throughout California, with more than $1.6 billion due back to electric customers, $1 billion to natural gas customers and $160 million to small businesses.

Source: ABC 7 News | By Tim Johns

The Utility Reform Network, or TURN, says it's a move that would likely reduce the rates customers pay for power by anywhere from 5 to 7 cents per kilowatt hour. "It's going to make utility bills more affordable for low-income households and reduce the volatility of month-to-month bills. And it will promote electrification," said TURN's Matthew Freedman. A welcome response for people like Freedman, who says regulators have a lot more work to do to make bills more affordable. "PG&E is spending too much money. Collecting too much in profits and not being held accountable for its mismanagement of the system," he said.

At the historic Orinda Theatre, the past few weeks have been anything but business as usual. Owner Derek Zemrak says he made the decision to close the theater on Mondays and Tuesday after receiving a PG&E bill for nearly $6,300, almost double what he normally pays. "I was shocked. I knew PG&E had raised rates for commercial properties. I just didn't realize it was going to be that high," Zemrak said. The skyrocketing bills aren't just hitting Zemrak. To tackle the issue, the California Public Utilities Commission is proposing a new $24 fixed charge on monthly electric bills.

Source: CBS News | By Kayla Moeller

The Utility Reform Network, a consumer advocacy group, says the proposal is a step in the right direction. "First of all, the rate people pay for usage would be reduced," said Matthew Freedman of the Utility Reform Network. If passed, customers would see a separate line on their bill for $24.15. However, that doesn't mean your bill would go up. That's because the flat rate would restructure your bill. The CPUC says customers' usage rates would be reduced by 5 cents per kilowatt hour. "For example, a PG&E customer that lives in the Sacramento area, the average customer would see about $1.50 a month net savings on their bills," Freedman said.

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) has a new proposal to lower the cost of your utility bill, but it's causing controversy as opponents are worried it could do the opposite. What's being proposed is a restructuring of how customers pay utility bills.

Source: San Francisco Chronicle | By Julie Johnson

Matthew Freedman, a staff attorney with ratepayer advocate nonprofit The Utility Reform Network, said his organization supports the commission’s plan but said the state needs to do more to make energy more affordable. “Much more needs to be done to address California’s skyrocketing electricity rates,” Freedman said.

Millions of Californians could see a new $24 fixed charge on their monthly utility bills in coming years if state regulators approve a plan that would reduce how much customers pay per kilowatt hour of electricity. The California Public Utilities Commission estimates the new flat fee would allow companies like Pacific Gas and Electric to reduce electricity prices by about 5 to 7 cents per kilowatt hour, easing the expense for customers already paying some of the highest electricity prices in the country.

Source: The Northern California Record | By Northern California Record

The Utility Reform Network (TURN) has raised concerns about the financial burden on California's ratepayers, who are grappling with "record-breaking bills" that are allegedly pushing families into poverty and homelessness. The organization points out that Californians are dealing with escalating costs for basic necessities such as housing, food, utilities, and insurance. In a press release, TURN revealed that the California Public Utilities Commission is planning to collect $516 million prematurely from PG&E ratepayers to safeguard PG&E’s credit rating. The consumer advocacy group highlighted that PG&E has several pending requests for rate hikes in addition to the average monthly increase of $35 that came into effect on January 1. TURN emphasized the urgency of the situation by stating that Californians are confronted with "skyrocketing bills" and require immediate relief. TURN is an independent consumer advocacy organization operating statewide, as per its website. For half a century, TURN has been committed to helping California residents and small businesses save money. The organization offers information on energy and telephone issues to consumers.

Over the past year, residents of California have been hit by significant price hikes for various necessities. Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) Consumer Price Index indicates that residents in the Western Region - which encompasses all of California - are paying 2.3% more for food, 4.8% more for rent, and 11.5% more for electricity since February 2023.

Source: CalMatters | By Justo Robles

Mark Toney, executive director of the consumer group the Utility Reform Network (TURN), noted that if this relief is approved, the utilities would immediately start collecting it. “PG&E shouldn’t automatically be getting this money without a field inspection to make sure they did the right work in the right locations with the right result, and they certainly should not be getting advance payment,” he said. The commission is scheduled to vote on that on March 7.

But PG&E also is seeking another overall rate increase for this year. In June PG&E requested rate hikes to reimburse the utility $688 million for wildfire safety work it had completed. State regulators earlier this month issued a counter proposal that would allow the utility giant to collect $516 million from customers. A typical residential customer’s bill would go up $4 to $6 a month during the first year, although the lowest-income customers would pay $3 or $4, according to the commission’s proposal.

Source: LA Times | By Sammy Roth

California lawmaker Dave Min has introduced a bill that would ban California utility companies from spending customer money to fight climate action. The state senator, a Democrat from Irvine, crafted his legislation in response to Sacramento Bee reporting showing how Southern California Gas Co. had attempted to spend ratepayer dollars to block climate and clean energy policies — a great reminder of the power of local journalism. You can check out the Bee’s earlier reporting, by Ari Plachta and Joe Rubin, here and here. Also see my own previous reporting on SoCalGas’ use of customer money.

The Biden administration has finalized approval of $1.1 billion to help Pacific Gas & Electric continue operating the Diablo Canyon nuclear plant past 2025, the Associated Press reports. No big surprises here; federal officials had been forecasting the move for months, as I’ve reported previously. The argument for keeping nuclear plants open longer is that unlike solar and wind farms, they can generate power around the clock. If it were up to many red-state lawmakers, though, we’d just keep burning coal. Just look at Utah, where the Salt Lake Tribune’s Tim Fitzpatrick reports legislators are making another effort to seize control of the coal-fired Intermountain power plant from the city of Los Angeles, which intends to stop burning coal there.

Source: The Mercury News | By George Avalos

The soaring electric utility costs in the Bay Area alarmed Mark Toney, executive director of The Utility Reform Network, a consumer group. Toney has harshly criticized PG&E for fast-rising utility costs that have far outpaced the general cost of living in the Bay Area. Toney also believes the state Public Utilities Commission has enabled PG&E’s sharply higher power cost by readily approving the bulk of the company’s rate requests. “More and more families on fixed incomes are being pushed to the brink of homelessness because of the unlimited rate increases for PG&E,” Toney said. “This is a crisis.”

Consumer prices in the Bay Area rose at a moderate pace in December in a hopeful sign that inflation is easing — but the cost of electricity provided by utilities such as PG&E rocketed higher, an official report shows. The Bay Area inflation rate, as measured by the region’s consumer price index, rose 2.6% in 2023, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on Friday.

Source: KQED | By Vanessa Rancaño

Many people who lose access to utilities end up moving in with others, restarting their utilities under someone else’s name, or leaving the state, said Mark Toney, executive director of the consumer advocacy group The Utility Reform Network. “But some of those people absolutely do end up homeless,” he said.

A quarter of California households reported being unable to pay their utility bills in October, according to a Census survey, resulting in what Columbia University public health professor Diana Hernández and others call energy insecurity, or the “heat or eat dilemma.” “It’s almost like a game of Russian roulette,” she said, describing the monthly juggle low-income families face. “Today’s unpaid energy bill is tomorrow’s eviction notice. And that cycle is a very real one.”