SAN FRANCISCO — California regulators have approved a $373 million rate hike for Pacific Gas & Electric to pay costs related to a series of wildfires.
Related Story: California’s Worsening Wildfires, Explained
KTVU-TV says the California Public Utilities Commission Thursday unanimously OK’d an increase that raises the average bill by $3.50 a month over 12 months.
The station says the money is supposed to be used to pay PG&E’s costs for nine fire, wind and rain events in 2016 and 2017, including repairs and clearing brush and trees from under power lines to prevent future fires.
The hike won’t cover the billions it will cost PG&E in connection with 2018’s devastating wildfires. The utility, which has filed for bankruptcy, is also seeking about $22 a month in rate increases for wildfire safety and to attract investors.
Once again, the taxpayer has no say in this matter, even though malfeasance coupled with very questionable business decisions in the name of profit is the ratepayer’s problem. In this case, I do not think so????
AMEN
To illustrate how costs facing the residential rate payer are impacted by internal PG&E costs, consider that residential natural gas rates are about $20.50/Dth while the cost of natural gas into PG&E’s system is currently between $2.50-$3.00/Dth. Note: 1 Dth =10 therms. Natural gas delivered through the PG&E system to the residential rate payer is 7 to 8 times more than the cost of that gas delivered to PG&E, i.e., the cost of the gas is about 12%-15% of the total delivered cost to the residential ratepayer. Fully 85%-88% of the total residential rate payers’ cost results from PG&E’s CA PUC approved costs, including various pipeline transportation costs, natural gas storage costs and many other costs. The consumer might benefit by a more efficiently and well managed system striving for not only safety but lower cost by unbundling its gas transportation and other services as many other gas distribution companies across America have.