Source: NBC Bay Area | By Pete Suratos

There are also other changes to look forward to after next year, according to the Utility Reform Network’s Executive Director Mark Toney. The consumer advocacy group is pushing for a cap on PG&E rate increases. The typical monthly bill will increase by nearly $33 starting next year, according to PG&E. In 2025, the increase will be around $4. And we’ll see a decrease of $8 in 2026. The exact monthly increase will depend on usage. Still, Toney feels the costs of PG&E addressing wildlife safety shouldn’t be passed along to consumers. “The shareholders want the ratepayers to pay everything,” said Toney. “We think it’s absolutely important that the shareholders put money in.”

The California Public Utilities Commission unanimously approved Thursday a monthly rate increase of nearly 13% starting next year. The money is set to help pay for wildfire risk investments, including undergrounding more than 1,200 miles of power lines.

Source: ABC 7 | By Muna Sadek

"Rather than pursuing the lower cost option, we’re out of the gate going with the highest cost option which will be impacting customer rates for a really long time," said Katy Morsony, with Oakland-based group The Utility Reform Network (TURN). "[Insulated powerlines] are the powerlines that stay in the air but they have layers of protection on them so in cases where vegetation blows in, it doesn't necessarily create a fault or a spark." Morsony says she believes price hikes should be dictated based on factors like inflation rates. "What is really astounding here is the degree of the rate increase, especially at a time when customers are already hurting," she said. "We should be limiting how much we see our energy bills go up so that they stay more in lockstep with people's take-home pay otherwise we see what's happening now which is a bigger and bigger piece of people's paycheck going to their energy bills."

PG&E customers will see higher energy bills in the new year, following a decision by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC). The regulatory board approved a new spending plan for the utility company on Thursday, which will result in a 12.8 percent increase to monthly bills for electricity and gas customers.

Source: KTVU | By Tom Vacar

"Which we think is more than necessary to provide safe and reliable service," said the Utility Reform Network Attorney Katy Morsony." In the last couple of years, we have reduced wildfire risk in our system by about 94 percent," said PG&E’s Paulo. "We just see rate increase after rate increase after rate increase really when customers can't bear to take on more," said the network's Morsony.

The California Public Utilities Commission voted Thursday to increase PG&E gas and electric bills. The average residential bill will be an additional $32.62 a month. Low-income CARE bills will rise by $21.66 additional dollars for next year. CPUC voted on PG&E's "massive" rate hike. It also approved a proposal to take away many benefits given to solar power system owners to increase utility company incomes even further.

Source: CBS News | By Tori Apodaca

"This is at a time where customers are already struggling to pay their utility bills," said Katy Morsony with The Utility Reform Network (TURN) that advocates for ratepayers. TURN had supported the cheaper option that would have done less undergrounding and more insulating of lines. Morsony said this is not the only rate increase PG&E customers will see over the next three years. Paulo agreed and said that rates could continue to increase on top of this hike.

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) made a 5-0 vote to approve the Alternate Proposed Decision that will increase PG&E customer rates by about 12.8%. The CPUC said the vote, which was delayed earlier this month, was not an easy decision and its biggest rate case ever.

Source: ABC 10 | By Gurajpal Sangha

Mark Toney says PG&E needs to achieve safety in the most cost-effective manner. “Electricity is a necessity, not a luxury,” said Mark Toney, executive director of The Utility Reform Network. “We are captive customers of PG&E.” Toney says PG&E needs to achieve safety in the most cost-effective manner. He said the price hikes should be capped and limited by the cost-of-living adjustment that social security recipients get. “The California Public Utilities Commission needs to do more,” said Toney. “They need to prioritize the affordability for everyday customers and not let PG&E empty their customer pockets.” Toney says as more people get their power shut off because they cannot afford the price hike, that is a leading contributor to people being evicted.

The California Public Utilities Commission (CUPC) could decide Thursday whether PG&E customers have to pay higher prices. Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) is requesting a double-digit rate increase that could start as soon as Jan. 1, 2024, if approved.

Source: Spectrum News 1 | By Jamie Kennedy

The commission has returned with two counter options to bury much fewer miles of lines and insulate them instead for wildfire protection because the cost is so high. An issue the utility consumer advocacy group, Turn, believes is critical given rates for customers have in the last few years increased by over 30%, outpacing inflation, executive director of Turn Mark Toney said. “It is faster and cheaper and as safe to insulate the overhead lines as it is to bury them underground,” Toney said.

PG&E aims to bury 10,000 miles of power lines. The company said it costs $3 million per mile and is asking the California Public Utilities Commission to let the company raise rates by 25% over four years to bury 2,000 lines.

Source: The Mercury News | By George Avalos

“PG&E executives scheduled a private meeting with the commission staff to lobby for an additional $1.8 billion in ratepayer increases,” The Utility Reform Network (TURN), a consumer advocacy group, said in a prepared release. Some of that money might go toward mitigating wildfire risk and some might go toward bolstering the utility’s credit rating. Burying power lines is typically considered far more costly and time-consuming than insulating and covering overhead lines, according to TURN. Mark Toney, executive director of TURN, said in an interview Monday that the PUC shouldn’t allow PG&E to force customers to endure higher bills as a way to bolster its credit rating on Wall Street. “PG&E has to focus on basics, to reduce its wildfire risks as quickly as possible by hardening the lines,” Toney said. “Credit ratings are all about managing risk. PG&E needs to harden the wires rather than use its customers to put more money in the pocket of Wall Street investors and the company’s shareholders.”

The state Public Utilities Commission (PUC) is scheduled to make a final decision on Nov. 16 regarding PG&E’s ability to make changes in customers’ bills. The grim reality: The two main proposals that the PUC is considering lead to big increases in monthly bills.

Source: Palo Alto Online | By Sherry Listgarden

The last proposal I will reference is a joint proposal from NRDC and The Utility Reform Network (TURN), an advocate for ratepayers. They split the difference, coming in between most of the other proposals, making some compromises but achieving the essence of what AB 205 calls for. They advocate for modest fixed charges based on three income levels. Rates go down in their scheme, but not to the degree that they go down for the IOUs. Affordability improves, but not as much as it does with the Sierra Club or CEJA proposals. Bills go up for higher-income customers, but electrification can save them money. “Coastal high tier customers for each IOU generally more than double their savings under our new electrification rate proposal relative to the existing rate.” NRDC and TURN seem to be aiming for something that will make things better, be politically palatable, and not be too hard to implement.

Effective energy pricing is key to transitioning away from fossil fuels. Americans are not always great at following rules but we are excellent at following prices. If we align our pricing with the transition we need to see, then we will see it. If we don’t, we won’t. That is why we must fix California’s electricity pricing.

Source: GV Wire | By Nancy Price

The Utility Reform Network, a Bay Area-based nonprofit that advocates for consumers, says PG&E officials took advantage of delays to lobby for an extra $1.8 billion in revenues over the next four years. And that would be on top of revenue jumps in two rate case proposals totaling billions of dollars in those years. “TURN opposes PG&E proposals to line the furs of Wall Street investors by squeezing an additional $1.8 billion from ratepayers,” executive director Mark Toney said in a news release. “It is time for the CPUC to stand up for customers and choose safety and affordability and vote to adopt the original Proposed Decision at their Nov. 16 meeting.”

Last-minute revisions to two major electricity-cost issues pending before the California Public Utilities Commission could impact how much consumers pay for electricity provided by Pacific Gas & Electric and whether apartment dwellers statewide will continue to get direct use of solar power generated at their sites. A consumer advocacy organization and a solar power association, both battling to halt the rise of electricity costs in California, are raising concerns about revisions in the PG&E general rate case and solar metering for apartments, schools, and farms that the PUC is scheduled to consider at Thursday’s meeting in Southern California.

Source: CBS News | By Tori Apodaca

“TURN is very concerned this gives PG&E more time to lobby the commissioners," said executive director of The Utility Reform Network (TURN) that advocates for ratepayers Mark Toney. Toney said PG&E's plan to use the dollars to underground power lines is more expensive and will take longer than insulating them. TURN thinks there should be a cap on rate increases. "The cap on rate increases should be no more than the cost-of-living adjustments that social security recipients get every year," Toney told CBS 13.

About 16 million people across Northern California will have to wait to see how much more they will be paying for power. The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) postponed its vote on the PG&E rate increase that was supposed to happen on Nov. 2 and said it needs more time to decide.

Source: ABC 7 News | By Cornell Barnard

For decades, The Utility Reform Network, or TURN, has waged a fight nearly single-handedly to oppose rising utility bills delivered by California’s three major utilities, PG&E, Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric. “We need to stop the sky being the limit for PG&E requests for rate increases, and the sky being the limit to how much the CPUC can approve,” said Mark Toney, TURN’s executive director. “What we need is legislation that caps annual rate increases to no more than the cost of living allowance received each year by people on Social Security,” Toney said. “Make PG&E live within a budget like its customers have to.”

The utility is asking the California Public Utilities Commission to approve a rate hike that could increase bills by up to $31 per month. Advocates were demanding 'fair rates' on the steps of California Public Utilities headquarters Wednesday where regulators will soon decide if PG&E will be granted a steep rate hike, which could raise the average monthly gas and electric bill between $25 to $31 dollars, depending how they vote

Source: Fresno Bee | By McClatchy California Opinion Editors

Mark Toney, TURN’s executive director, told McClatchy California opinion editors that Edison has been able to harden power lines for about $800,000 a mile. PG&E’s undergrounding plan would cost $3 million to $4 million per mile, he said. Similar estimates are included in the PUC’s proposed decision. There are other significant advantages with line hardening:

▪ PG&E would be able to conduct the work without having to secure rights-of-way and other approvals.

▪ Since PG&E would follow existing power-line routes, it would not need environmental reviews. With burying, should PG&E encounter an unexpected obstacle and need to burrow around it, added environmental review would be needed, and that would cause delays.

Putting high-voltage electrical lines underground, rather than running them overhead atop power poles, is one way to prevent devastating wildfires. Pacific Gas and Electric Co. would know. The utility’s equipment sparked a series of deadly wildfires in Northern California that scorched hundreds of thousands of acres, cost hundreds of millions in firefighting expenses and caused billions of dollars in damage.

Source: NBC Bay Area | By Ian Cull

“We’re talking [$750 million] people are behind on their bills now and we see profits going higher and higher at PG&E,” said Mark Toney with the Utility Reform Network. The Utility Reform Network advocates for ratepayers. Toney says if the price of electricity keeps rising it won't just affect your monthly budget. It will also mean people won’t be incentivized to trade gas cars for electric ones. “The California Public Utilities Commission needs to make a decision. Is the point of PG&E to provide reliable, clean, safe, and affordable energy? Or is to provide a gravy train for Wall Street investors,” Toney said.

A study by the Public Advocate's Office at the California Public Utilities Commission found monthly electric bills over the past three years have gone up about 38% for PG&E customers. The new report comes ahead of a major decision for PG&E next week.

Source: Utility Dive | By Kavya Balaraman

But Mark Toney, executive director of ratepayer advocacy group The Utility Reform Network, said that the administrative law judge’s proposed decision “got it right in terms of making an evidence-based decision that insulating the overhead power lines is not only faster and cheaper, but when you look at the safety benefit analysis, turns out to be as safe – if not a tiny bit more safe – than burying the lines.” On the broader issue of balancing the safety and affordability of the electric grid, Toney stressed that utilities can’t have a blank check approach to safety. “ You need to figure out how do you get the most safety for the most cost-effectiveness — and the reason is because there’s not unlimited funding,” he said.

This September, the CPUC issued two proposals in response to PG&E’s general rate case request which cover the utility’s operational and infrastructure costs from 2023 through 2026. California utilities file general rate case applications with state regulators every four years, during which regulators scrutinize the revenues the utility will need for that period. PG&E’s latest application sought a $15.41 billion, $16.34 billion, $16.98 billion and $17.43 billion revenue requirement for 2023, 2024, 2025 and 2026, respectively.

Source: KPBS | By Erik Anderson & Bennett Lacy

The Utility Reform Network (TURN) is calling on California’s utilities to do a better job of preparing customers for higher bills if they see a price spike coming. TURN argues San Diego’s fortune 500 energy company could have done much better. “Sempra — the parent company of SDG&E that buys all this gas — did a very poor job,” said Mark Toney, executive director of TURN. “They failed last year to do proper management to keep the prices down. Winter comes every year, and every year there needs to be good management of buying ahead of time, storing the right amount of gas.” Toney gave Pacific Gas and Electric higher marks for minimizing the cost to consumers by buying natural gas in the summer, when prices were cheaper, and by having more of the fuel in storage in the winter.

Utility regulators are already looking ahead to California’s winter in an effort to determine if natural gas prices will spike into record territory like last year. The California Public Utilities Commission gathered with industry officials on Thursday for a briefing on the regional natural gas market.

Source: CNBC | By Katie Brigham

“If we keep pushing up electricity rates, the most vulnerable of us are not going to be able to pay,” says Katy Morsony, a staff attorney with The Utility Reform Network, a consumer advocacy group that supports a more limited approach to undergrounding.

While Martin says moving power lines underground reduces ignition risk by 98%, it comes at a steep cost. Data compiled by the California Public Utilities Commission shows that undergrounding just one mile costs anywhere between $1.85 million and $6.1 million, meaning PG&E’s total plan would likely be in the tens of billions. The bill would be footed by PG&E’s customers, who already face some of the highest rates in the nation.

Source: The Mercury News | By Editorial Board of The Mercury News and The East Bay Times

TURN executive director Mark Toney says that it would be significantly cheaper for PG&E to insulate its power lines, rather than bury them underground, as a way to protect against catastrophic wildfires. The two proposals would have PG&E insulate 1,800 miles of power lines and bury 200 miles of power lines at a cost of $2.1 billion. PG&E proposes insulating 320 miles and burying 2,000 miles of power lines at a cost of $5.9 billion.

Source: 2 News | By Josh Many

"Enough is enough, we need to keep these electricity rates down especially if they're going to push everybody to electricity," said The Utility Reform Network (TURN) Executive Director Mark Toney

TURN is pressuring PG&E, Pacific Gas to keep the cost of electricity down as California aggressively pursues more electrification of the energy system.

"People can adapt to go from gas to electric. They are mad when they're told you have to pay more to cook your food. The winning argument is to say, we want you to switch to electricity and your going to save money," said Toney.

Congressman LaMalfa evoked communities hit hard by power outages last winter in towns like Truckee and South Lake Tahoe.

He contends banning gas engines and appliances in those communities would put residents in dangerous circumstances, particularly because the electricity grid has proven unreliable.

Source: CBS News | By Tori Apodaca

The Utility Reform Network, which advocates on behalf of ratepayers, has argued that a faster and cheaper way to reduce wildfire risk is to insulate power lines instead of burying them.

It appears the commission agrees. Both of its proposals would approve rate increases sufficient to bury less than 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) of lines.

Still, "both proposed decisions adopt substantial and painful increases to monthly bills, far beyond the cost of inflation, which (we believe) should be a cap for bill increases," said Mark Toney, executive director of The Utility Reform Network.

Power bills for about 16 million people in Northern California will likely increase after state regulators released two rate proposals for one of the nation's largest utilities Wednesday.

The California Public Utilities Commission is finishing up its once-every-four-years review of Pacific Gas & Electric, the Oakland-based utility that provides electric and gas service to a 70,000-square-mile (181,000-square-kilometer) area in northern and central parts of the state. The commission must approve how much PG&E can charge customers and how it will spend that money.

Source: The San Joaquin Valley Sun | By Daniel Gligich

“[B]oth proposed decisions adopt substantial and painful increases to monthly bills, far beyond the cost of inflation, which (we believe) should be a cap for bill increases,” The Utility Reform Network Executive Director Mark Toney told the Associated Press.

Ratepayer advocate The Utility Reform Network has offered a different solution for PG&E to keep rates from increasing: insulating the power lines instead of moving them underground. Advocates argue that PG&E could save money and protect more lines through insulation.