California Senate bill aims to limit utility rates hikes

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- A freshman authorities legislator has projected a measure to rein successful PG&E costs and trim complaint hikes.

Month aft month, Rebeca Rangel receives PG&E bills that are $200 - $300 contempt having star panels connected her Fresno home.

Rangel said she has wellness issues and has worked with the institution connected outgo plans, but respective weeks agone she started receiving notices that her measure needed to beryllium paid disconnected and soon.

"I marque payments each azygous month, adjacent if it's lone $50 much often than not it's 100 trying to enactment astatine the apical of it," said Rebeca Rangel, Fresno local.

"They tin spot that. And yet, they springiness maine 15-day notices, similar successful January, and past successful February, the archetypal week of this month, gave maine a week notice, I don't know, 7 days, 10 days, truthful it feels hostile."

A caller measure introduced by freshman authorities Senator Aisha Wahab aims to enactment restrictions connected investor-owned inferior companies, specified arsenic PG&E.

One of those restrictions is prohibiting the shut-off of utilities for specified susceptible ratepayers, similar Rangel, to guarantee their wellness and information needs are met.

The measure would besides bounds PG&E and different utilities to 1 complaint hike per twelvemonth for residential customers.

The summation would beryllium constricted to nary much than the Consumer Price Index, which is utilized to measurement the complaint astatine which prices increase.

"We've had enough. And we've seen, you know, conscionable successful the past 5 years," said Wahab.

"There were organizations that person accrued astatine much than 4 times the nationalist mean right, and person acold outpaced ostentation and person besides the highest rates successful the Continental US

This measure is being introduced arsenic PG&E announced grounds profits of $2.47 cardinal for 2024.

Over the aforesaid time, California authorities regulators agreed to six abstracted complaint increases.

PG&E provided Action News with this connection successful effect to the bill:

"We cognize that galore customers are impacted by higher costs, including energy. We are taking enactment to bounds aboriginal complaint increases and stabilize lawsuit bills, including reducing our materials and labour costs, much efficiently readying and executing work, and little our financing costs. Our investments are delivering results for customers, and we're committed to gathering the safe, reliable and climate-resilient vigor strategy they expect and merit astatine the lowest imaginable cost."

Wahab expects an uphill conflict to get this measure passed.

However, the inferior justness group, Reclaim Our Power, said it's a bully commencement to semipermanent solutions.

"We are paying exorbitant amounts of wealth conscionable to support the lights connected and their shareholders are making historical all-time precocious profits right," said Travis Gibrael, Reclaim our Power! "And truthful anybody who sees that connection. if that doesn't choler you, if that doesn't upset you, if that doesn't galvanize you and motivate you to telephone your legislator and archer them, yes, we request to alteration the system."

Parts of ratepayer PG&E bills spell towards the Wildfire Fund, which inferior companies tin propulsion from erstwhile liable for causing wildfires.

This Senate measure would alteration however overmuch ratepayers wage into the money and summation what companies enactment in.

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