Source: Sacramento Bee| By Stephen Hobbs & Kate Wolffe

“I’m absolutely stunned by the size of the increase they are requesting,” said Mark Toney, executive director of The Utility Reform Network, also known as TURN. “We have an affordability crisis, they reported record-breaking profits two years in a row.”

Pacific Gas and Electric Co. wants to increase the amount of profit its investors can make, a move that could raise bills by roughly $5.50 per month for residential customers starting in 2026. The request is likely to add even more frustration with the company among customers and legislators at the Capitol.

Source: KRON 4 Bay Area| By Rob Nesbitt

On Thursday, PG&E sent a request to California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) asking to increase customers’ bills by $5.50 a month. If approved, the rate hike would take effect in January 2026. That doesn’t sit well with Executive Director of the Utility Reform Network, Mark Toney. “I am absolutely stunned that PG&E would ask for such a huge increase in their profits for shareholders,” Toney told KRON4. Toney says the changes to your electric bills would give PG&E the highest profit rate of any utility company in the country. “The CPUC should reject the increase that PG&E is asking for,” he said. The proposed increase would come on top of the $3 a month increase that customers are experiencing this year. The Utility Reform Network wants to see changes to PG&E equipment, not monthly bills. “Insulate your overhead power lines, because it only costs one fifth of burying them underground and that’s going to save rate payers money,” Toney said. Toney says that this request for a price increase is just one of about 10 that the CPUC has on their desk from PG&E.

Pacific Gas & Electric customers could see their bills increase next year by as much as $5.50. That’s what the utility company sent to the California Utilities Commission for approval yesterday. PG&E says that prices are going up because their investors expect to be compensated when providing the utility company with funding. For many customers however, that’s a less-than-satisfactory reason for raising already high rates.

Source: ABC7 San Francisco| By Suzanne Phan

The Utility Reform Network, or TURN, advocates on behalf of ratepayers. "It's unbelievable. I'm floored that PG&E is asking for such a large increase in their rate of profit, their Cost of Capital application," TURN Executive Director Mark Toney said. "They apply every three years to the California Public Utilities Commission. It has to approve how much profit they can make on investments.” Last year, PG&E increased its rates six times. "There were five electricity increases and one natural gas increase," Toney said. The average residential customers paid about $440 more a year, compared to 2023.

Even though PG&E customers pay some of the highest energy bills in the country, even though PG&E has shattered profit records, the utility is now asking the California Public Utilities Commission to raise rates so it could pay investors more. PG&E is asking for an 11.3% return for investors, up a percentage point from the current limit.

Source: KQED| By Danielle Venton

“Here’s the problem,” said Lee Trotman, a spokesperson for the Utility Reform Network, or TURN, “PG&E also recorded record profits last year. For 2024, they recorded $2.47 billion in profits. That’s a record, and they did it by raising rates six times.” He expects the increase, if approved, will cause further distress for PG&E customers, about 20% of whom are behind on their energy bills, according to the CPUC’s Public Advocates Office (PDF). Trotman said TURN will advocate for a lower increase and ask the company about other ways to save money: “We will intervene, and we’ll say, ‘OK, that’s excessive, that’s not sustainable. So, have you tried this? Will you try that?’”

Utility giant PG&E asked California regulators this week to allow it to increase compensation for its investors, a move that would add yet another rate hike for customers. California’s largest investor-owned utility said raising the allowable rate of return for shareholders by 1 point, to 11.3%, is appropriate because of the risk involved with investing in energy in the state. That return would bring the utility more in line with other comparable energy companies, according to PG&E.

Source: CBS 13 Sacramento| By Brady Halblieb

"They will tell investors, 'Hey if you give us the money for essential energy projects, we will guarantee you a return on equity,'" said Lee Trotman, a spokesperson for The Utility Reform Network, a consumer advocacy group. If approved, the rate hike would add approximately $5.50 more per month to the average PG&E customer's bill. That may not seem like much, but customers are already paying $60 more per month than last year, and PG&E bills have increased 56% over the past three years. “Every rate increase, especially from PG&E, is devastating to customers. You have literally millions of customers, who can’t afford to pay their bills,” said Trotman.

AUBURN – The utility company has announced it is requesting an increase, not for infrastructure or safety improvements, but to boost returns for its investors. Currently, PG&E investors earn a 10.2% return on investment. If approved, the new rate would rise to 11.3%, a 1.1% increase.

Source: Manteca/Ripon Bulletin| By Dennis Wyatt

The Utility Reform Network (TURN) is urging the CPUC to reject the request. “California utilities are driving an affordability crisis, with families paying billions in excessive costs while investor profits soar,” said Lee Trotman, Communications Director of TURN.

PG&E wants yet another rate increase. And this time its to make sure its investors are kept whole against risks the for-profit utility may incur. The filing Thursday with the California Public Utilities Commission pencils out to roughly $5.50 a month or $66 a year for residential customers.

Source: San Joaquin Valley Sun| By Daniel Gligich

The Utility Reform Network (TURN), a consumer advocacy group, is pushing back against PG&E and urging the state to reject the request for an increase. 

TURN is asking the CPUC to decrease the 10.6% rate of profit that California utilities are currently receiving. 

TURN is also asking the CPUC to stop approving costly infrastructure projects that inflate rates and is urging the Legislature to change the system to eliminate profits from essential infrastructure investments. 

“California utilities are driving an affordability crisis, with families paying billions in excessive costs while investor profits soar,” said TURN communications director Lee Trotman. “As PG&E, SoCal Edison, and SDG&E submit their cost of capital proposals today, the California Public Utilities Commission must take bold action to lower bills by tackling the root cause of skyrocketing rates: guaranteed profits that reward utilities for spending more, not spending wisely.” 

Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) is asking California regulators to raise its rates in order to pay more money back to the utility’s investors. PG&E submitted its 2026 Cost of Capital application to the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) on Thursday to raise rates starting next year. PG&E has requested an increase of around $5.50 per month for residential customers. That would set an 11.3% return on equity for investors. 

Source: Los Angeles Times| By Sammy Roth

“Not having any risk from ignition requires an insane amount of spending,” said Matthew Freedman, an attorney for the Utility Reform Network, a ratepayer watchdog group, in an interview.

From 2019 through 2023, Edison, PG&E and SDG&E were collectively authorized to add $27 billion in wildfire-related costs to customer rates, according to the California Public Utilities Commission — 18% of overall system costs for PG&E, 12% for Edison and 9% for SDG&E. And even if state officials want some Californians to pay more for fire prevention, electric rates are a terrible way to divvy up the costs. High utility bills disproportionately burden low-income and middle-class families, eating up a bigger chunk of their monthly budgets

Source: Canary Media | By Jeff St. John

“There’s agreement that record-breaking shareholder earnings make no sense along with skyrocketing costs,” said Mark Toney, executive director of The Utility Reform Network (TURN), a ratepayer advocacy group, and that ​“utilities need to be held more accountable for their spending.” TURN is supporting a list of bills being introduced in this year’s legislative session that take aim at utility costs. Some would increase state regulator oversight on utility grid spending. Others seek to forbid utilities from spending ratepayer funds on lobbying and advertising and strengthen CPUC oversight of potential ​“double recovery,” or utilities collecting funds for projects already financed via other means.

Everyone agrees that California’s major utilities are charging too much for electricity. But as in previous years, state lawmakers, regulators, and consumer advocates are at odds over what to do about it. With the state’s three biggest utilities reporting record profits even as customers’ rates have skyrocketed, critics say the time is right to pass laws that will force regulators to more tightly control key utility costs — or even outright curb utility spending and profits.

Source: Bakersfield Californian| By Mark Toney

Voters living in the districts of Rep. David Valadao and Jim Costa depend on The Utility Reform Network to protect them from getting ripped off by utility corporations. They also depend on the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau to protect themselves from getting ripped off by every other corporation. Their constituents are counting on their vote to support the CPFB, so that they can continue to make mortgage lenders, banks, medical debt collectors, and credit card companies return billions of dollars to customers they have abused.

Source: CalMatters| By Alejandro Lazo and Sergio Olmos

Mark Toney, executive director of consumer advocacy group The Utility Reform Network, said California should consider a major shift in how it approaches wildfire prevention and recovery. Instead of focusing only on utility-caused wildfires, the state needs a comprehensive wildfire prevention plan that addresses all fire risks — whether sparked by power lines, lightning, arson, or other causes, he said. Every state agency should be working together under a unified strategy, rather than leaving individual municipalities and utilities to figure it out on their own, he continued.

Gov. Gavin Newsom and the Legislature created a $21 billion wildfire fund paid for by Wall Street investors and California utility ratepayers to help PG&E exit bankruptcy and protect utilities from being financially threatened in the future by the wildfires they cause. Six years later, experts are warning that damages from January’s LA fires could deplete the fund, or, at the very least, raise doubts about the fund’s ability to cover future wildfire losses.

Source: Canary Media | By Jeff St. John

The CPUC didn’t specify which alternative sources could fill that gap. Prior proposals to use state tax revenues or California’s cap-and-trade program could be part of the mix, said Mark Toney, executive director of The Utility Reform Network, a ratepayer-advocacy group. But even supporters of those concepts like Toney don’t see much hope of lawmakers fielding bills that would ask taxpayers to shoulder costs now borne by ratepayers. ​“It is wishful thinking that we could shift rooftop subsidies to taxpayers,” he said. ​“I’m not holding my breath here.”

The net-billing tariff the CPUC approved in late 2022 to replace its previous net-metering regime offers far lower payments for the electricity that newly installed rooftop solar systems inject onto the grid, except for a few hours per year when peak power is in dire need. That structure rewards customers who add batteries that can store and inject power during those valuable hours — a service that should reduce how much energy utilities need to secure and how much grid infrastructure they need to build to serve those peak moments.

Source: The Cool Down| By Amy Bolyington

"Regulators need to shield residential and small business customers from shouldering the brunt of these new data center costs," Sylvie Ashford, an energy and policy analyst at The Utility Reform Network, told CalMatters.

Data centers and crypto mines demand a lot of energy. A recent report from Energy Futures Group on behalf of Earthjustice revealed how electricity tariffs and contracts for these large facilities can impact the power grid and energy costs. 

Source: San Francisco Chronicle | By Julie Johnson

Mark Toney, executive director of The Utility Reform Network, or TURN, said the commissioners are responsible for protecting utility customers from out-of-control company spending but have failed to do so. “They have more authority than they use,” Toney said. 

The typical household bill is expected to be about $299 for those with both electricity and gas service, PG&E said. That is slightly higher than the average residential bill one year ago of about $296, according to PG&E’s bill averages tracked by the Chronicle. The changes come after a historic year of PG&E bill hikes. In 2024, average residential customers paid about $440 more annually compared with 2023, prompting widespread complaints that rising bills are increasingly hard for Californians to pay. 

Source: San Diego Union Tribune| By Rob Nikolewski

TURN (The Utility Reform Network), a San Francisco-based consumer group, also took a jab. “Today, SDG&E reported near-record profits off the backs of customers,” the group’s spokesman Lee Trotman said in an email. “This blatant profiteering at the expense of hardworking families demands immediate action from legislators and regulators to put an end to excessive profits and reckless spending.”

San Diego Gas & Electric made $891 million in profit last year, according to financial numbers filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission by SDG&E’s parent company.

Source: Los Angeles Times| By Sammy Roth

“The Legislature has only so much bandwidth,” said Matt Freedman, an attorney for the Utility Reform Network. “We do worry the fires will lead to a massive uptick in wildfire mitigation spending,” Freedman said.

Californians pay some of the nation’s highest electricity rates. They’re also being devastated by the consequences of fossil fueled climate change, including more deadly and expensive wildfires, droughts and heat waves. Before the Palisades and Eaton fires broke out, lawmakers were gathering ideas to slow fast-rising electric rates. Now, though, wildfire response — and President Trump — are taking up most of the oxygen in Sacramento.

Source: CalMatters| By CalMatters

But, so far, data center expansion shows no signs of slowing in California, said Sylvie Ashford, an energy and policy analyst at The Utility Reform Network. Ashford said the need to run transmission lines to data centers could hike prices for California ratepayers, one in five of whom are already behind on paying their electricity bill “Regulators need to shield residential and small business customers from shouldering the brunt of these new data center costs,” Ashford said. “California needs to be proactive and develop equitable solutions for cost recovery and electric rate design, so that data centers are paying their fair share for system improvements.”

California residents now pay the highest price for electricity in the continental U.S., state analysts reported last month.  In response, California lawmakers have in recent weeks proposed bills to ensure that electricity customers don’t pay for the infrastructure that utility companies build to serve data centers — and to encourage more energy efficiency or use of clean energy on the part of the tech companies, entrepreneurs, and IT departments that utilize the centers.

Source: KSEE/KGPE| By Rhett Rodriguez

“We have to fix a broken system. There are no limits on how much PG&E can ask for increases and how many times a year they can ask,” said Mark Toney with TURN, the utility reform network. He says he is hopeful that the power dynamic between customers and energy companies is shifting, with the introduction of Senate Bill 332.

There’s a new push to limit just how much and how often utility companies can raise rates in California. This comes after PG&E recorded a record profit in 2024 of $2.47 billion while increasing rates six times in that same amount of time.

Source: CalMatters| By Khari Johnson

But, so far, data center expansion shows no signs of slowing in California, said Sylvie Ashford, an energy and policy analyst at The Utility Reform Network. Ashford said the need to run transmission lines to data centers could hike prices for California ratepayers, one in five of whom are already behind on paying their electricity bill.  “Regulators need to shield residential and small business customers from shouldering the brunt of these new data center costs,” Ashford said. “California needs to be proactive and develop equitable solutions for cost recovery and electric rate design, so that data centers are paying their fair share for system improvements.”

California residents now pay the highest price for electricity in the continental U.S., state analysts reported last month. Costs have been driven in part by levies to prevent and insure against wildfires, but the analysts anticipate a less conspicuous source of pressure on power bills going forward: growing electricity demand from data centers. That means more power plants to build and more transmission lines to run, leaving state regulators increasingly concerned that the general public will be on the hook for Big Tech’s electricity binge.

Source: Sierra Daily News| By Sierra Daily News

However, critics like Mark Toney from The Utility Reform Network argue that mismanagement has led to these financial burdens, citing overspending in past budgets.

PG&E shattered profit records for the second year in a row. The utility announced Thursday it made $2.47 billion in profits in 2024. Over the same time, California state regulators agreed to six separate rate increases. The recent approval of two additional rate hikes for Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) by the California Public Utilities Commission has sparked significant concern among customers. These increases, which mark the fifth and sixth hikes for the utility in 2024, are intended to support vegetation management and extend the operation of the Diablo Canyon Power Plant. The increases will be gradually implemented on customer bills starting in 2026.