Source: Cal Matters | By Khari Johnson

If fiber optic cables that power internet connectivity were like nerves in your body, middle mile broadband is like the spinal column that acts as a central bundle of nerves while the last mile is like the nerves in your fingers or tips of your toes, said Alexandra Green, an attorney for The Utility Reform Network. She follows developments in the middle-mile broadband program as part of her job. Last fall, advocacy groups like the Utility Reform Network criticized state agencies for excluding historically marginalized communities in Oakland and Los Angeles from the statewide middle-mile broadband installation map while keeping projects in more affluent areas. “Now all of a sudden that $1.5 billion he committed to funding the rest of the projects, there’s no longer a guarantee basically,” she said. “That’s one of our concerns generally: Equitable access for low income Black and brown historically redlined communities.” Green said the planned cuts raise her level of concern for how the state will treat broadband installation projects in those communities.

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s newest budget proposal calls for $2 billion in cuts to public broadband projects meant to bring high-speed internet to all Californians and close the digital divide. The reduction is part of Newsom’s updated plan to close a $44.9 billion shortfall.

Source: USA Today | By Betty Lin-Fisher

While the rejection is a proposal and still needs to be approved by the commission, Regina Costa, telecommunications policy director for The Utility Reform Network (TURN) in California, said she fully expects the board to approve it. “What AT&T really wants is to stop providing essential telecom service to 99% of its service area, without providing a shred of evidence that there are real alternatives. This includes many areas threatened by wildfires, earthquakes, floods and power shutoffs," Costa said in a press release. "If AT&T gets its wish, it would significantly jeopardize public safety." In an interview with USA TODAY, Costa, who is also chair of the telecommunications committee for the National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates, said California's proposed rejection of the landline waiver is on top of a recent rejection in Utah for another utility to waive its obligation to provide landlines. "I think it's very important for consumers nationwide,'' Costa said. "I think that would give other states the impetus to look at the same thing."

California utility regulators are proposing rejecting a request by AT&T to eliminate its responsibility to provide traditional landline phone service. That could have implications nationwide, a consumer advocate said. Fewer telephone companies are offering basic landline phone service as the utilities say the copper-wire infrastructure is old and expensive to maintain, and the demand for landline phone service is low as consumers move to mobile and other services.

Source: KQED | By Alix Soliman, Guy Marzorati, and Kevin Stark

Right now, in California, if you use a lot of electricity, you pay more. If you live an energy-efficient lifestyle, you pay less. Sylvie Ashford, an energy analyst for The Utility Reform Network, or TURN, said that won’t change. The group supports the new fixed rate, which Ashford said will incentivize people to convert to clean energy. “Consumers report one of the biggest barriers to buying electric vehicles and electric heat pumps to be the high and rising cost of electricity,” Ashford said. “When it becomes 8% to 10% cheaper on each kilowatt hour, your operating costs on your electric vehicle or your electric heat pump become that much more competitive with polluting gas alternatives.” Ashford said that while fixed rates are a good first step, the state must do more to address California’s skyrocketing electricity fees, like keeping utility revenue requirements and shareholder profits in check.

Starting late next year, most California residents will see a new fixed charge of up to $24.15 on their monthly electric bill. In exchange for the new charge, the price of electricity will drop by between 5 cents and 7 cents per kilowatt hour.

Source: KCRA TV3 Sacramento | By Lysee Mitri

The regulatory agency that oversees PG&E, the California Public Utilities Commission, has said there are other more affordable ways to mitigate wildfire risk. And consumer advocacy organization, The Utility Reform Network, agrees. "We're trying to balance getting the safest, greenest electricity and gas that we can get to our California customers at the lowest possible price," said Katy Morsony, a legislative and assistant managing attorney at TURN.

PG&E's proposed four-year budget includes spending nearly $6 billion to bury 2,000 miles of power lines by 2026. It would add about $3.40 to a typical residential bill each month. The CPUC is considering two alternatives to PG&E's plan. Instead of burying 2,000 miles of the electric grid, one scaled-back proposal would allow the company to bury 200 miles of lines and another would allow for 973 through 2026.

Source: San Francisco Chronicle | By Julie Johnson

“Customers have hit the breaking point and have passed it,” said Matthew Freedman, an attorney for ratepayer advocate group The Utility Reform Network, which supports the fixed charge plan. “People who live in the Central Valley have taken it on the chin as rates have gone up.” “You have to start somewhere,” Freedman said. “Doing nothing is a bad choice.”

California regulators are set to vote Thursday on a major change to utility bills that could raise costs for some residents already burned with soaring rates, while lowering costs for others. The California Public Utilities Commission will decide whether to approve a $24.15 fixed charge on utility bills in exchange for lowering the per-unit price of electricity. The rule would apply to customers of Pacific Gas and Electric Co., San Diego Gas & Electric and Southern California Edison.

Source: Capital & Main | By Aaron Cantu

“Simply requiring that hydrogen be produced using renewable resources, without any additional criteria, will not achieve” statewide decarbonization goals, warned Matthew Freedman, renewables attorney with The Utility Reform Network, who testified about hydrogen before the California Assembly. Even if the electricity used to make hydrogen comes from solar or wind, Freedman said, it could pull clean power that’s now being used elsewhere on the state’s power grid. Without an ample supply of clean energy, power plants burning fossil fuel gas would likely have to make up the shortfall.

A plan by California business groups to accelerate a hydrogen industry has gained ground after two state Senate committees approved legislation to create a renewable energy sector nearly from scratch. Hydrogen associations, including investor-owned gas utilities, car manufacturers and oil conglomerates, are now promoting the bill and weighing what regulations to put in place. As the bill moves through the Legislature, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration is lobbying the U.S. Department of the Treasury to get a break from emission restrictions on hydrogen production while state agencies, at times, have echoed the talking points of the hydrogen industry itself. California was selected by the U.S. Department of Energy for a $1.2 billion hydrogen hub investment, and companies could benefit from an additional $10 billion in tax credits, proponents of the measure said.

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: SF Chronicle | By Emma Stiefel

Mark Toney, Executive Director of The Utility Reform Network, believes it’s unfair that Poppe made $17 million while PG&E customers suffer from historic rate increases. Poppe received about $3 for each of the 5.5 million PG&E electricity customer accounts, though her pay does not come directly from customer rates. Her total compensation was over three times the $5.4 million PG&E's highest-paid executive vice president received in 2023. “Customers have a right to be upset that the PG&E board and investors are willing to pay so much to the CEO and other executives in the face of record-breaking bills,” Toney told the Chronicle. “​​Anyone who’s paying a PG&E bill is unhappy about this.”

PG&E CEO Patricia Poppe took home $17 million in the 2023 fiscal year, including her $1.4 million salary and $11.8 million in stock awards. That was up by nearly $3 million from 2022, when she made $14.1 million in compensation. While critics believe this hearty pay package is uncalled for amid soaring energy bills, PG&E has argued that they are paying market rate for top talent.

Source: Legal Planet | By Ruthie Lazenby

Sylvie Ashford of the Utility Reform Network, in response to a question about whether the fixed charge increases utility profits: “This fixed charge does not increase utility revenue or profit in any way. If it did, we would oppose it—we’d be the first ones to oppose it. The costs are determined in other proceedings and that’s where the major effort needs to be. We want other parties to please join us in the general rate cases and pay attention when the utilities are asking for billions and billions of dollars because that’s where the rate increases are coming from; that’s where the record profits are coming from; and that’s what has to be kept in control to stop these absurd rate increases that are far outpacing inflation and have one in five California households in utility debt.”

Electricity rate design is unavoidably technical. It also has huge implications for equity, climate change, and ensuring a grid that works. Rate design can be used to promote many different goals, from efficiency to bill stability, but it always entails distributive decisions. Rate design determines how we distribute the costs not just of electricity, but of the shared system that provides that electricity. 

Source: Associated Press | By Adam Beam

“Only at PG&E would (Poppe’s) attempts at brand rehabilitation be considered a ‘safety message,’” said Mark Toney, executive director of the Utility Reform Network. “This blatant misuse of ratepayer funds is exactly why we need SB 938 and its clear rules and required disclosures for advertising costs.”

California lawmakers on Monday rejected a proposal aimed at cracking down on how some of the nation’s largest utilities spend customers’ money. California’s investor-owned utilities can’t use money from customers to pay for things like advertising their brand or lobbying for legislation. Instead, they’re supposed to use money from private investors to pay for those things.

Source: The Mercury News | By George Avalos

Mark Toney, executive director of The Utility Reform Network, a consumer group, was skeptical that PG&E will rein in the pace of monthly bill increases. “I’ll believe it when I see it,” Toney said in an interview about Poppe’s comments. “The prices are so doggone high now they would need to come down significantly to make a difference and make them affordable.” “I find it very hard to believe PG&E, given that the company has a dozen rate increases currently in front of the PUC,” Toney said. “There are a host of proposals that will all impact customers.”

“We see a future where customers’ bills can start to come down,” Poppe said in response to questions from this news organization about fast-rising ratepayer costs, after an event PG&E hosted in Richmond. The surprising comment struck some reform advocates as too good to be true.

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: Communications Daily | By Adam Bender and Jimm Phillips

Possibly facing the end of the federal affordable connectivity program (ACP), theCalifornia Public Utilities Commission should quickly modify grant rules to ensureservice stays affordable, said The Utility Reform Network in petitions Friday andMonday. “We don’t have the luxury of time here,” said TURN Telecom Policy Analyst LeoFitzpatrick in an interview Monday. TURN sought changes to grant rules for the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) broadband infrastructure account in a Friday petition in docket R.20-08-021. In a Monday petition (docket R.20-09-001) along similar lines, TURN and the CPUC’s independent Public Advocates Office suggested changes to the CPUC’s federal funding account (FFA), which uses broadband funding from the U.S. government. In both cases, TURN asked the CPUC to pause making awards until it updates rules to account for ACP’s end and to direct applicants to amend already filed applications.

Reprinted with permission of Warren Communications News, Inc. and Communications Daily, 800-771-9202, https://warren-news.com/ and https://communicationsdaily.com/

Source: The Mercury News | By George Avalos

“Customers, shocked by record-breaking bills, have a right to be upset that PG&E shareholders are showering their CEO with $17 million a year,” said Mark Toney, executive director with The Utility Reform Network, or TURN. “If they have enough to provide their executives with millions of dollars in raises because of record-breaking profits,” Toney said, “then they can provide rate relief to millions of captive customers who can no longer afford to pay their monthly utility bills.”

PG&E handed out higher executive compensation to the utility giant’s top boss and other key executives in 2023 — pay increases that came at a time of soaring monthly customer bills and rising profits.

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: KPBS | By Andrew Bracken & Lara McCaffrey

Here's consumer advocate Mark Toney of the Utility Reform Network. A lot of people are questioning why is it that SDG&E needs more money , that shareholders seem to be doing just fine. It's the customers that are hurting. It's the customers that are feeling the pain , but it's the shareholders who are reaping the gain.

And not surprisingly , over the past few years , we've seen an increase in the number of people falling behind on their bills. At the same time , SDG&E reported record profits in 2023 , leading many to wonder why prices are so high.