Soaring Electricity Bills Could Hobble California’s Green Energy Push: Report

Source: San Jose Mercury/Bay Area News Group |  By George Avalos

Soaring monthly electricity bills from the likes of PG&E and its utility siblings could hobble California’s quest for an aspiring green energy future, a disquieting new state report shows.

Mark Toney, executive director of consumer group The Utility Reform Network, or TURN, said “there is a lot to like in this report” for consumers, “particularly in terms of identifying wildfire mitigation as being a major expense.” “The report also talks about the profit motives that the corporate-owned utilities such as PG&E vs. the motives of publicly owned utilities” such as the Sacramento Municipal Utilities District, Toney said. “The publicly owned utilities have an incentive to save money. The corporate utilities have an incentive to maximize profits,” he said. “The state legislature is going to have to develop a spine to say no to Wall Street and big investors and to say yes to safety and defending the ratepayers.”

 
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Wildfire and Climate Programs are Driving up California Electricity Bills, says State Analyst

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Report Finds California Residential Electricity Rates Increasing Faster than Inflation