PG&E Bills to Soar Nearly $400 a Year in 2024 for Millions of California Households

Source: San Francisco Chronicle  |  By Julie Johnson

Millions of California households served by Pacific Gas and Electric Co. will pay about $384 more in 2024 for utilities to help the company prevent wildfires and meet rising demands for electricity. That amounts to about $32.50 more per month for average residential customers, according to PG&E. The California Public Utilities Commission approved the increase Thursday, ending a yearslong debate over how much more PG&E customers must pay to help the embattled utility — which caused a catastrophic explosion in 2010 and major wildfires in 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2021 — modernize its infrastructure, primarily to be more safe.  

“This is the biggest rate case TURN has ever seen,” said Katy Morsony, an assistant managing attorney for The Utility Reform Network, or TURN, an advocacy group for ratepayers. Ratepayer advocacy groups such as TURN pushed for the commission to promote a far less expensive and faster method by insulating bare wires instead of the laborious process of burying them. The CPUC opted to allow for more buried lines.“We’re disappointed,” Morsony said. “We need to be choosing only the most affordable and fastest wildfire safety measures to protect customers and their pocketbooks.”