Source: Politico| By Blanca Begert, Tyler Katzenberger, Alex Nieves, Will McCarthy and Wes Wenteicher

“We need to fix a broken system where there are no limits to how much PG&E can request in rate increases, and no limits to how much the CPUC can grant in rate increases,” Mark Toney, executive director of The Utility Reform Network, said in a statement.

Utility and energy professionals in California and beyond are acknowledging a paradox. On the one hand, they’re looking eagerly at how advances in machine learning and artificial intelligence can help them manage the grid, predict fires and outages and respond more flexibly as energy demand grows.

Source: ABC7 News | By Cornell Barnard

"There are no limits to how much the Public Utilities Commission can grant in hikes, that's why TURN has been fighting for a cap on increases no more than the cost of living adjustment, provided by social security," said Mark Toney, Executive Director for TURN. TURN, The Utility Reform Network says, PG&E has been granted too many hikes this year alone. "We're looking at the fourth rate hike in 2024 alone, and every rate hike is like the tip of the iceberg, every hike stacks on top, that's why people are so angry," said Toney.

Your PG&E bill could jump another $6 per month before the end of the year. The price of natural gas rose in September, about $5.78 more on an average PG&E bill. The utility says a decrease in demand for gas is the reason. For months, utility watchdogs have been calling for fair utility rates but next week, the California Public Utilities Commission could grant PG&E yet another electricity rate increase of 2.7% about $6 more on an average bill.

Source: Los Angeles Times | By Hayley Smith & Melody Petersen

Mark Toney, executive director of The Utility Reform Network (TURN) — a consumer advocacy group — said the governor’s original electricity affordability plan included a measure that would have lowered the interest rates that utilities earn on capital investments such as transmission lines and power plants. Current policy encourages utilities to build expensive infrastructure because they get to recover the cost — plus annual interest that is typically 10.5% — through rates billed to customers. The original plan was aimed at reducing that rate through a financing technique called securitization. “It would create significant savings,” Toney said of the original proposal.

Amid tense, closed-door negotiations, Gov. Gavin Newsom and Democratic lawmakers have released a suite of seven bills that aim to reduce Californians’ soaring energy costs — including a controversial electricity affordability plan that critics say was substantially weakened by lobbying from utilities and will offer little real relief.

Source: ABC 7 News | By Dustin Dorsey

Mark Toney is the executive director for the Utility Reform Network and says bills have skyrocketed more than 100% in the past four years. With this latest fire data, Toney says it's fair for customers to question if the increases are worth it. "The customers are paying the price of more expensive and much slower wildfire safety," Toney said. Toney would prefer to see cheaper, faster ways of wildfire mitigation -- like insulated lines -- over seemingly constant increases with little results.

As the peak of the wildfire season quickly approaches, PG&E is working just as fast to put a stop to fires caused by its own equipment. The utility is reporting 62 fires caused by power lines this year, nearly equally the total from all of last year. To make the electric system safer, and reduce wildfire risk, sometimes exceptional costs have to be incurred. That's been PG&E's message as to why rates have increased so much in the last few years. But wildfires have not decreased.

Source: The Sacramento Bee | By Stephen Hobbs

“The fact that the insurance corporations are going after Consumer Watchdog, means Consumer Watchdog is doing their job extremely well,” said Mark Toney, executive director of The Utility Reform Network, and one of the letter signers. “In fact, I would call it a badge of honor.”

In the state’s tumultuous market, where prices are spiking and coverage is harder to find, the Department of Insurance is now considering a question that goes to the heart of the group’s work: Does Consumer Watchdog actually represent the interest of Californians? State lawmakers, companies and residents are all pressuring Lara to do more. In response, he is supporting rule changes meant to speed up reviews of proposed rate increases. Lara blames delays on companies – but he also claims Consumer Watchdog has slowed the process down by copying department work when it protests price hikes. He has accused the group of holding the reviews hostage at times. Representatives for 14 environmental, legal and other groups co-signed a letter to Lara that said it was “outrageous” for companies to suggest Consumer Watchdog wasn’t working on behalf of residents. It called on the department to grant the organization’s request immediately.

Source: ABC10 | By Brandon Rittimanhor

Customers who received some of PG&E’s first new underground power lines are shocked by how little the company buried and frustrated by a lack of clear communication

Source: CBS News | By Steve Large

Mark Toney is the executive director of The Utility Reform Network, or TURN. Toney said that PG&E should be covering more power lines above ground. He said that PG&E's effort to put 10,000 miles of power lines underground is too slow and costly. The state has authorized the utility company to bury only 1,300 miles by 2026. "It's delaying safety and costing a fortune," Toney said. "If you are in a place that's waiting to be buried, maybe you're not in this four-year round. Maybe you'll be in the next four years or maybe after.”

With triple-digit fire weather top of mind, some people who live in wildfire-prone areas like Foresthill in Placer County are getting their power lines put underground by Pacific Gas and Electric—and some are not. Mike Howard owns a home on one acre of property in Foresthill. He's had several close calls and mandatory evacuations in the ten years since moving there.

Source: CalMatters | By Khari Johnson

California’s Public Utilities Commission today rejected AT&T’s application to stop providing landlines and other services in areas where there is no other option.

Its 4-0 vote came after a judge determined the application by AT&T California was “fatally flawed.”

Source: SF Chronicle | By Aidin Vaziri

AT&T must continue offering landline telephone service in California, state regulators decided Thursday.

Source: Hawai’i Public Radio | By Savannah Harriman-Pote

Still, securitization may not be a bad deal for ratepayers, said Mark Toney, the executive director of The Utility Reform Network, a California-based consumer advocacy group. "Just think about the difference between the people who got their home loans at 3% or less and people today who are having to pay 7% or more. The same house, your payments are double what they are. So it's kinda like that, it's the same principle," Toney told HPR. But Toney added that ratepayers should never be on the hook for utility negligence. If that’s the case, he said “there has to be a guarantee that shareholders reimburse the ratepayers in real time.” The Utility Reform Network has been involved in one of the largest securitization cases in the country with Northern California electric utility PG&E, which took out $7.5 billion in ratepayer bonds to pay costs related to the 2017 California wildfires. However, he said, California law does not allow a utility to make ratepayers pay for wildfires started due to the company's negligence. "If you look on a PG&E bill and you open it up when it comes in the mail, you will see a line item that talks about repaying the bond as a bill, but there will be a bill credit for the exact same amount, which represents the shareholders reimbursing the ratepayers in real time."

The brushfire that destroyed Lahaina last year was one of 28 weather and climate disasters in 2023 that cost a billion dollars or more in damages. Electric utilities face increasing expenses related to extreme weather events like hurricanes, ice storms and wildfires. Several utilities, including Hawaiian Electric, have eyed ratepayer-backed bonds as a possible avenue to recoup some of those costs.

Source: ABC 7 News | By Lena Howland

"I think that is disrespectful to customers, and that the commissioners owe it to the customers to explain their vote for yet another increase," Mark Toney, executive director of TURN said. Toney, executive director of TURN, The Utility Reform Network, points out that this increase is on top of the hike that already went into effect on Jan. 1, which averaged around $38 a month per customer. This is despite the utility reporting last year's profits surged to more than $2.2 billion, a jump of almost 25%. “It doesn't make any sense for PG&E to keep crying poor when the fact is, they are more profitable than they've ever been in their history, it is not right," he said.

On Thursday, the CPUC voted again to allow PG&E to raise rates in a 4-0 vote, expected to take effect in April. This comes after a rate increase just went into effect on Jan. 1.

Source: NBC Bay Area | By Jaxon Van Derbeken

“We’re talking about a company who, in 2023, $2.5 billion to shareholders? PG&E has the money,” said Mark Toney, executive director with the ratepayer advocacy group TURN. “You have no reason to cry poor when we have given you rate increase after rate increase after rate increase.” “These new investors are going to want a return on their investment,” adds Toney of TURN, “and they're going to want a return that's much higher than the regulated rate of return.” But Toney is skeptical of the company's claim - saying partial private ownership could make the utility vulnerable to market pressure and other unknowns. In the end, he says he believes, utility customers could end up paying for more bailout costs instead of utility shareholders. “PG&E is leading with love, the love of money,” Toney said. “The situation right now is that ratepayers feel all the pain and the shareholders are reaping all the gain.”

Despite profits of more than $2 billion last year, PG&E recently told regulators that it is in such a financial bind that it needs more time to make a $1 billion payment. Ratepayer advocates were quick to dismiss the idea that PG&E is facing an actual financial pinch. Those advocates believe the utility's customers are the ones in a real financial bind - thanks to a recent string of rate hikes.

Source: KQED | By Danielle Venton

“The bill was ‘right on target in terms of telling the utilities and telling the Public Utilities Commission that we need to find the least cost solutions…”

California has enjoyed a few relatively quiet wildfire seasons, but lawmakers are still focused on lowering the state’s risk and have introduced a number of fire-focused bills in the last few weeks…

Source: USA Today | By Betty Lin-Fisher

If California allows the waiver for AT&T, it becomes a slippery slope for other states, said Regina Costa, telecommunications policy director for The Utility Reform Network (TURN) in California and chair of the telecommunications committee for the National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates. “I think the nation is watching California very closely,” said Costa. “Is there a replacement that will guarantee service to all customers and guarantee reliable service?” That service needs to be available to all customers at a reasonable cost, said Costa. “Customers really get squeezed with service offerings and price increases” for alternatives, she said.

The California Public Utilities Commission is considering an application by AT&T to waive its responsibilities to be what’s called “Carrier of Last Resort,” meaning the utility has to offer the copper-wire landline service. The utility said in filings with the commission that the technology for the traditional landlines is old and demand is low. The utility and many of its peers have been petitioning state utility commissions and state legislators, asking to be relieved of the task of maintaining and offering the traditional landline service.

Source: San Francisco Chronicle | By Annie Vainshtein

“What AT&T is seeking is really, really profound,” said Regina Costa, telecommunications policy director for The Utility Reform Network. “By removing that obligation, that means there is no one that can guarantee service for a customer.”

An effort by AT&T to pull out of its obligations to offer landline services across a huge swath of California — including most of the Bay Area — has raised impassioned safety concerns among residents worried about what might happen if they lose access to their traditional wired phone lines, especially in the event of a natural disaster or other emergency. As the designated “carrier of last resort” in California, the telecommunications giant has long been required to provide basic phone services to people who want them, as required by state law. Such services are cheap, ubiquitous and heavily regulated.

Source: Manteca Bulletin | By Dennis Wyatt

"Every increase that you hear about is just the tip of the iceberg,' The Utility Reform Network executive director Mark Toney said. "And every increase that gets approved by the California Public Utilities Commission stacks on top of each other. TURN noted PG&E is asking the CPUC to allow them to start collecting the additional $2 billion on an interim basis in March before the rate request completes the required regulatory review process.

PG&E’s record $13.5 million rate hike granted in mid-November was bad enough, as far as San Joaquin County Supervisor Robert Richman is concerned. But the utility’s request less than a month later for another $2 billion rate hike crossed over into being “outrageous” and is not reasonable or acceptable, according to Rickman. It is why Rickman who represents Ripon, rural south Manteca, Tracy. and Mountain House is asking his colleagues on the Board of Supervisors when they meet Tuesday to register official opposition to the proposed rate hike with the California Public Utilities Commission.

Source: ABC7 News | By Lyanne Melendez

"San Francisco is not as volatile as some of these areas that have burned recently," said Mark Toney from The Utility Reform Network, commonly known as TURN.

Undergrounding overhead utilities has a long history in California that dates back to 1967. In fact, the city of San Francisco has put roughly half of its utility lines underground. But today, PG&E says there is no money left to underground the rest of San Francisco, much to the disappointment of homeowners.

Source: Santa Rosa Press Democrat | By Marisa Endicott

Mark Toney, executive director of The Utility Reform Network, a utility customer advocacy group, said ratepayer representatives used to have greater insight and play a bigger role in such accountability processes, but public participation and oversight has become more limited. “It’s a new pattern, and one which we are pretty unhappy about,” Toney said. The organization also voiced concern about a 2021 settlement between the CPUC’s Safety and Enforcement Division and PG&E over the 2019 Kincade Fire, calling the deal “an abandonment of transparency and opportunities for public input.”

California Public Utilities Commission officials have again put off deciding whether to approve a controversial settlement with Pacific Gas & Electric Co. over its role in the 2021 Dixie Fire, the second largest wildfire in California history. Commissioners were set to vote on the deal Thursday after delaying a decision in late November in order to gather more information. On Monday, however, regulators again bumped a vote, this time to Jan. 25. A CPUC spokesperson said the new delay was based on a need for “further review.” The agreement reached between PG&E and the CPUC’s Safety and Enforcement Division would penalize the utility giant $45 million, with $2.5 million going to the California General Fund and $2.5 million going to Indigenous tribes affected by the Dixie Fire.

Source: Capital and Main | By Mark Kreidler

“Talk about audacity – not only do they want to charge for what they didn’t get authorization to spend ahead of time, but they also want to collect most of the money before the commission even authorizes the retroactive amount,” said Mark Toney, head of the utility reform network TURN, which provided Capital & Main with several documents related to PG&E’s multiple requests for rate increases. “It’s certainly significant.” Toney estimated that customers will see at least $12 per month and as much as $20 per month added to their bills if the CPUC approves this latest rate hike and early collection plan. Added to the new $33 monthly increase, average annual bills could jump between $540 and $640 this year alone. Toney said that PG&E’s ultimate goal is to recover all of that overspend on the backs of its ratepayers, one hike at a time — one reason TURN is pushing for a cap on the percent of increase a utility can ask in any given year. “There simply can’t be no limits to what they can ask for,” the advocate said, but that is exactly what is in play here in 2024.

Only a few weeks after receiving approval from the California Public Utilities Commission for that roughly $400 annual rate hike late last year, PG&E went right back to the well. In a Dec. 1 filing, the utility asked the CPUC for permission to pass along another $2 billion in cost overruns as part of its ongoing process of updating wildfire mitigation and repairing storm damage.

Source: CBS News | By John Ramos

"These rate increases are completely out of control," Toney said. "We have a system that is broken, where there are no limits to how much PG&E can ask for or how many times a year they can ask for it." TURN is advocating that utility rates be capped at the rate of inflation of Social Security. In a statement, PG&E said, "...we're aggressively focused on finding new ways to work so that we can keep future bill increases at or below a broader, long-term inflation rate of 2% to 4%." But Toney said he thinks utility bills should only deal with delivery of power, and that other costs like wildfire mitigation should be paid through the state budget.

Homeowners across the Bay Area have seen their power bills climbing, but the latest request for an increase will reach a historic milestone -- more than $300 for the average monthly PG&E bill. "Shocking, maddening and frustrating!" That's how Janet Kimball described the utility bill for her Pleasant Hill home.