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: CalMatters | By Julie Lynem

Legislative maneuvering aside, affordable energy and climate advocates like Mark Toney, executive director of The Utility Reform Network, believe that placing a cap on utility rate hikes is just one part of the solution. Regulators should also require utilities to exercise fiscal discipline on spending, he said. Utilities, Toney explained, should not be given a “credit card with no limit and a guarantee that someone else is going to pay.” TURN is backing the Utility Accountability Act, a sensible bill that would prohibit utilities from using funds collected from ratepayers to pay for advertisements, political activities or membership dues of trade associations engaged in lobbying. It would also require utilities to document and disclose their spending. By increasing the cost for using electricity, “that’s not rewarding people for good behavior,” Toney said.

Unaffordable housing, high transportation and health care costs – it’s hard enough to get by in California without also worrying about cranking up the air, turning on the stove or simply keeping the lights on. But that’s what concerns many Pacific Gas & Electric Co. customers who cannot afford to pay their soaring utility bills. As of February, more than 1 million of them were behind on payments.

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: KGTV ABC 10 San Diego | By Jeff Lasky

“That’s what makes people upset," said Mark Toney, executive director of the watchdog group TURN (The Utility Reform Network). "Right now, it feels like customers are bearing all the pain. And SDGE investors and executives get all the gain.” TURN calls for CPUC to investigate the wildfire projects to ensure SDGE did not pad the projects to increase profit and “to make sure that the right measures were taken in the right locations with the right results and at the most cost-effective manner for the ratepayers.”

Power bills in San Diego are going up. Effective Mar. 1, San Diego Gas & Electric is implementing a new rate increase. The company expects the increase to work out to a little more than $8 per month for the average customer. SDGE points out that even with the rate increase, customers are still paying less now than they did at this time in 2023, due to an 11% rate cut that took effect in January. However, critics say SDGE should not be raising rates at all, considering its announcement this week that it broke its all-time record for earnings for a second consecutive year, leading to record performance for stockholders.

Source: CBS News | By Kristine Lazar

Mark Toney with The Utility Reform Network or TURN, a consumer advocacy group, says its problematic that utilities get to decide if they are liable for damage. "The challenge is, they get to decide whether they're at fault or whether you're at fault, or whether a third party or the weather, or things out of their control," Toney said. "So what that means is, they decide whether they're at fault. I will tell you most of the time they do not find themselves at fault, not surprisingly." Toney explained small claims court is an option, with the limit for individuals at $12,500 and for businesses, it's half of that at $6,250. "It's almost not worth the effort," Toney said.

Some Long Beach small businesses are blaming SoCal Edison after a power outage and subsequent surge fried their pricey equipment, begging the question of who is responsible for it all. A dental office and veterinary clinic both lost equipment worth tens of thousands of dollars following an October 2023 power surge.

Source: The Sacramento Bee | By Ari Plachta

“When I read this, I was like, ‘Holy crap, they’re using ratepayer money,’” said Sen. Dave Min, an Orange County Democrat who authored the bill. “I’m a SoCalGas customer. They’re using my money to lobby against climate regulations, and that is really messed up.”

A state senator introduced a bill Wednesday to strengthen laws that prevent energy utilities in California from passing on the costs of political lobbying to their customers.

Source: Grist | By Akielly Hu

It’s not uncommon for state regulators to fine utility companies for charging ratepayers for lobbying efforts. In 2022, for instance, the California Public Utilities Commission fined SoCalGas $10 million for using ratepayer money to lobby against local gas bans, federal energy efficiency standards, and building electrification policies. But according to Katy Morsony, a staff attorney at the consumer advocacy group The Utility Reform Network, writing those penalties and detailed annual reporting into law will make it much easier to hold utilities accountable. Morsony also clarified that the bills wouldn’t prevent utilities from engaging in lobbying — they would simply be forced to fund that advocacy work exclusively with money from shareholders. But as households face rising energy costs, she added that any policy to prevent utilities from unlawfully extracting more money from consumers will make a tangible difference. “It’s common sense ratepayer protections,” Morsony said. “When you’re in the energy affordability crisis that we’re in, every dollar counts.”

When households in the United States pay their gas and electric bills, they’re paying for energy, the wires and pipelines it takes to get that energy into their home, and the costs of maintaining that infrastructure. But those monthly payments could also be funding efforts by utilities to lobby against climate policies. While federal law prohibits utilities from recovering lobbying expenses from customers, consumer advocates say that those rules lack teeth and aren’t sufficiently enforced. Now, states are taking the lead to ban the practice. According to the utility watchdog group Energy and Policy Institute, lawmakers in eight states, including California and Maryland, have introduced bills this year that would block utilities from charging customers for the costs of lobbying, advertising, trade association dues, and other political activities. The measures build on a growing trend in state policy: Last year, Colorado, Connecticut, and Maine became the first states in the nation to pass comprehensive laws preventing utilities from passing on the costs of lobbying to ratepayers.

Source: Canary Media | By Jeff St. John

Toney of The Utility Reform Network agrees with the Sierra Club and NRDC that California needs to find ways to help its residents meet the state’s aggressive electrification goals. ​“We’re absolutely joined at the hip when it comes to leadership on climate policy,” he said. ​“Where we differ is on the revenue streams to pay for that.” So far, ratepayers have largely borne the costs of the gigawatts of solar power the state’s major utilities have signed contracts for over the past decade and a half, as well as for the roughly $1.5 billion in utility electric-vehicle charging programs launched in the past half-decade. Toney says he’d like to see state lawmakers direct more taxpayer dollars to fund these programs instead. Nor does Toney think that SCE should be allowed to add new building-electrification costs to its customers’ bills until it can explain how that doesn’t just duplicate other sources of funding.

When SoCal Edison first announced its plan to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to help 250,000 customers install heat pumps back in 2021, some building-electrification advocates saw it as the kind of proactive step utilities need to be taking to transition their customers off of fossil fuels and help California meet its ambitious climate targets. Others saw it as an unproven building-electrification strategy that could add new charges to already-expensive electric bills, without clear evidence of long-term cost reductions and climate benefits.

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: Orange County Register | By Andre Mouchard

Shareholders, not consumers, should pay for any lobbying or other political speech undertaken by their local utility. That is the simple idea at the heart of SB938, a bill proposed this month by state Sen. Dave Min, D-Irvine. The pitch comes in the wake of a 2023 investigation by the Sacramento Bee and a state report, released last August, in which the Public Advocates Office said Southern California Gas Co. billed ratepayers tens of millions of dollars to pay for political efforts aimed at changing clean-air regulations in ways that would be profitable for the utility. Min’s bill, which was filed this week and is likely to change as lawmakers debate it in coming months, would apply to privately held utilities and establish specific definitions of the types of activities that can’t be billed to ratepayers. The bill also would require public reporting on the financing of a utility’s political speech, and establish a penalty system for any violations.

Source: Daily Kos | By Dan Bacher

“At a time when customers are burdened with record breaking monthly utility bills, corporations need strong limits and meaningful penalties preventing spending of any ratepayer dollars on PR television commercials and lobbying the Public Utilities Commission to raise rates even higher,” said Mark Toney, Executive Director of The Utility Reform Network (TURN).

Senator Dave Min (D-Irvine) today introduced a bill, Senate Bill (SB) 938, that will prohibit political lobbying by investor-owned utilities that can be charged to ratepayers. “While federal law technically prohibits utilities from passing lobbying costs onto their ratepayers, these laws are riddled with loopholes, which has allowed utility companies across the country to effectively engage in political lobbying using ratepayer money,” according to a statement from Min’s Office.

Source: Scot Scoop | By Emi Pajarillo

“We want the most green for the least green. The cost of greening the grid should not be cutting off low-income families,” said Mark Toney, the executive director at The Utility Reform Network (TURN), a consumer advocacy organization.“The poorer you are, the more burden is placed on you, which doesn’t make sense in a society where the wealth gap keeps expanding.” “It is not right to increase a consumption tax on necessities of life such as electricity, to fund climate change initiatives, solar subsidies, and wildfire. We need to develop better, more progressive, equitable ways to generate revenue for those important priorities,” Toney said.

Facing escalating financial pressures, customers across California struggle with Pacific Gas and Electricity’s (PG&E) increased utility rates in the new year. As of Jan. 1, PG&E is increasing customers’ monthly bills by 12.8%, resulting in an average increase of $32.50. These funds will go toward wildfire mitigation initiatives, electric capacity upgrades, and clean energy goals.

Source: Earth Justice | By Matt Vespa and Katy Morsony

Californians need more transparency around expensive advertising campaigns from their utilities. The bill codifies existing policy that utility shareholders pay for public messages that tend to enhance a utility’s public image, and adds a new requirement that every utility public message or advertisement will be required to clearly disclose whether shareholders or ratepayers funded the message.

New legislation can stop utilities like SoCalGas from abusing customer money to fight climate action. When you think about what you’re paying for in your electric and gas utility bill, you probably think of the energy powering your lights, furnace, and stove. But you may also be paying for your utility to lobby against popular clean air and climate standards.

Source: KPBS | By Erik Anderson & Bennett Lacy

The Utility Reform Network (TURN) is calling on California’s utilities to do a better job of preparing customers for higher bills if they see a price spike coming. TURN argues San Diego’s fortune 500 energy company could have done much better. “Sempra — the parent company of SDG&E that buys all this gas — did a very poor job,” said Mark Toney, executive director of TURN. “They failed last year to do proper management to keep the prices down. Winter comes every year, and every year there needs to be good management of buying ahead of time, storing the right amount of gas.” Toney gave Pacific Gas and Electric higher marks for minimizing the cost to consumers by buying natural gas in the summer, when prices were cheaper, and by having more of the fuel in storage in the winter.

Utility regulators are already looking ahead to California’s winter in an effort to determine if natural gas prices will spike into record territory like last year. The California Public Utilities Commission gathered with industry officials on Thursday for a briefing on the regional natural gas market.

Source: Los Angeles Times | By Terry Castleman

“The proposal, she said, was “unacceptable” and would make it difficult for gas customers to recover from recent price surges…“

Despite public outcry over unusually high natural gas prices this winter, utility executives sought Monday to justify a proposal to…

Source: KTLA 5 News | By Will Conybeare

“We urge the L.A. City Attorney to investigate why SoCalGas paid two-hundred fifty percent more for gas this winter than PG&E,…”

Twenty social, environmental, health and utility justice organizations submitted a letter calling on Los Angeles City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto…

Source: Los Angeles Times | By Sammy Roth

“A settlement is supposed to convince us that this really is in the best interests of the public,” TURN staff attorney Katy Morsony told me…

It all started in Berkeley.In July 2019, elected officials in the Bay Area city, a national leader in progressive politics and environmental…