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

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 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: 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: Bay Area News Group (San Jose Mercury) | By George Avalos

“Gov. Newsom’s executive order is an important first step to solving the affordability crisis facing California families, small businesses, steel and glass makers, manufacturers, and agriculture producers,” said Mark Toney, executive director of The Utility Reform Network, or TURN, a consumer group. Both PG&E and TURN said they looked forward to cooperating with the governor’s office to help tackle the utility bill woes that confront millions of California electricity and gas customers.

While it’s unclear if the executive order will have any immediate effect, it does come at a time when PG&E bills have zoomed at a pace that’s eight times faster than the Bay Area inflation rate. In 2023, PG&E’s monthly bills for residential customers soared 22.3%. Over the same 12 months, the Bay Area inflation rate rose 2.6%

Source: Courthouse News Service | By Alan Riquelmy

Mark Toney, executive director of The Utility Reform Network, in a statement called the executive order an important first step in addressing the state’s affordability crisis that families, small businesses and others face. “TURN looks forward to working with the governor’s staff on affordability strategies not in the [executive order] that will save ratepayers billions in spending, including setting limits on utility overspending, requiring least cost solutions to wildfire safety, and public financing options to reduce the cost of wildfire safety capital investments,” Toney said. 

California regulatory agencies have taken the brunt of public outcry over high utility prices for months. The state’s Public Utilities Commission regularly hears angry, even threatening, comments related to electricity prices. Newsom’s executive order seeks to assuage those concerns. The governor also ordered the Office of Energy Infrastructure Safety, and asked the utilities commission, to examine wildfire safety practices, ensuring that investments are cost effective.

Source: San Diego Union Tribune | By Rob Nikolewski

The Utility Reform Network, the San Francisco consumer group commonly known as TURN that often weighs in on utility issues, called Newsom’s executive order “an important first step to solving the affordability crisis” facing California ratepayers.

Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an executive order Wednesday aimed at finding ways to reduce rising electricity bills that beleaguered customers pay each month — although the order did not offer specific dollar figures and timetables. Newsom’s executive order calls for “smarter wildfire mitigation investments” by directing state regulators to evaluate utility oversight and ensure that spending is “focused on cost-effective” measures. The order also:

—calls on the California Public Utilities Commission to identify underperforming programs and return any unused money to utility customers through credits on their bills

—asks the utilities commission review the costs of regulations of various programs, pursue federal funding options to help lower electric bills and directs the California Energy Commission to look at cost-saving measures, and

—instructs the California Air Resources Board to find ways to increase the California Climate Credit that utility customers receive two times each year.

Source:The Press Democrat | By Marisa Endicott

“While this is clearly optional — there’s no question about that — I think a lot of people feel it’s tone deaf coming on top of record breaking bills,” said Mark Toney, executive director of The Utility Reform Network, a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization, who said his organization has also received inquiries about the partnership. “They say they’re working to reduce costs, but this is pushing an optional service, an insurance product, that some people will benefit from and most won’t because that’s how insurance is supposed to work.”

One of the seven pages in the mailer explains that HomeServe is not an affiliate of PG&E and that the utility “is not responsible for, and does not endorse or provide guarantees for, plans offered by HomeServe.” But the packet also contains a letter from a PG&E vice president, Chris Zenner. “We have some exciting news to share with you!” he writes. “As a valued PG&E customer, you have access to home protection plans from HomeServe.” He goes on to say that “HomeServe is a trusted provider of home protection programs” and that customers can now enjoy “the convenience of” having the company’s charges added to their PG&E bill. It also provides PG&E with revenue in the form of a fee paid by HomeServe for billing and payment processing services. Most of that fee “is used to lower rates, keeping the prices customers pay lower than they otherwise would be,” according to a PG&E webpage, although Paulo declined to provide a percentage.

Source: San Diego Union Tribune | By Rob Nikolewski

Mark Toney, executive director at The Utility Reform Network (TURN), a consumer advocacy group that testified during the proceeding, says SDG&E ratepayers are already getting socked financially. “The bottom line is that this is the worst time for San Diego and Southern California customers to be hit with major increases to both utilities.” TURN criticized the commission for issuing the proposed decision so late. “What that means is the increase is going to be magnified because they have to catch up,” Toney said. “The delay magnifies the rate shock.”

San Diego Gas & Electric customers would pay 2.7% more on their electric bills starting next year while customers with natural gas hookups may pay almost 9% more, according to a proposed decision released Friday afternoon by the California Public Utilities Commission. According to the proposed decision, typical SDG&E residential customers using 400 kilowatt-hours of electricity per month would pay $170.87, which represents a $4.46, or 2.7%, increase compared to what they currently pay. The percentage increase would be the same for customers enrolled in the California Alternate Rates for Energy (CARE) financial assistance program.

Source: CBS47 and KSEE24 Fresno | By Ben Morris

“There are no limits to how much the public utilities can grant in an increase,” said Mark Toney, executive director for The Utility Reform Network. “Utility debt has quintupled over the past four years. It’s five times more than it used to be,” he said.

“There are a lot of things on your bill that I don’t think should be on your bill,” said Governor Newsom. “There are a lot of programs in this state that frankly stack up. And then, everybody pays for what only a few people are taking advantage of,” he said. However, in addition to dollars going to programs and policies, rate increases continue to hit families hard. In September, the California Public Utilities Commission unanimously passed its fourth PG&E rate hike of the year.

Source: FOX2 KTVU | By Tom Vacar

Consumer advocate Mark Toney of The Utility Reform Network (TURN) blasted the initiative saying, "PG&E executives will stop at nothing to empty the pockets of their customers.”

Customers have received letters from a company called HomeServe, which offers a monthly service for $6 that will cover water meter failures. For another $6 per month, the service would pay for certain electrical equipment not covered by PG&E. The third page of the form, which appears on PG&E letterhead and signed by a vice president, calls HomeServe a trusted provider that has been thoroughly vetted. HomeServe's charges would appear directly on the customers' PG&E bills.

Source: ABC7 News | By Muna Sadek

"So much of the increase today is based on overspending," Executive Director Mark Toney said. "I would say thatfor any overspending that shareholders should pay 50 percent of all cost overruns." TURN sponsored a recent bill in the State Legislature that would have required just that but Toney said PG&E ultimately killed it. "Every bill that PG&E didn’t like because it would reduce shareholder returns, it would set limits on how much ratepayers had to pay, PG&E was able to kill," Toney said.

PG&E ratepayers will see their bills go up a little over $5 a month soon, after the California Public Utilities Commission approved the increase Thursday morning. The utility says it needs the funds to recoup losses following recent storms and wildfire mitigation projects, however a number of ratepayers made public comments ahead of the vote to voice concerns about what would be the company's fourth rate hike of the year.