You Shouldn’t Have to Pay for Utility Shenanigans in Your Energy Bill
Source: Earth Justice | By Matt Vespa and Katy Morsony
New legislation can stop utilities like SoCalGas from abusing customer money to fight climate action. When you think about what you’re paying for in your electric and gas utility bill, you probably think of the energy powering your lights, furnace, and stove. But you may also be paying for your utility to lobby against popular clean air and climate standards.
Californians need more transparency around expensive advertising campaigns from their utilities. The bill codifies existing policy that utility shareholders pay for public messages that tend to enhance a utility’s public image, and adds a new requirement that every utility public message or advertisement will be required to clearly disclose whether shareholders or ratepayers funded the message.
