PG&E asking for another rate hike

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- PG&E customers are frustrated at the idea of yet another rate increase.

Fresh off an 11% increase granted by the Public Utilities Commission (PUC), it's asking for another $2 billion from its customers to cover costs related to wildfires and other disasters.

That could add another $12 to $20 to your monthly bill as early as March.

"This is going to be on top of the $33 that we're going to see January 1," says Mark Torey, the executive director of The Utility Reform Network (TURN), which is advocating for the state of California to impose a cap on utility rate increases.

It's something Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer says he could get behind, "In a four-year period, PG&E will have increased by 59 percent, and now they're making another request to the PUC that would take effect in either March or May of 2024.

He called the latest request shocking and is worried it will devastate Central California families already struggling to make ends meet.

"We're going to have to, collectively, as a council and as an administration, sit down and have some more discussions about 'what can we do as a city to stop this?"

PG&E sent Action News a statement saying in part that it's "making the electric system safer, resilient to climate change, decarbonized and optimized to meet California's needs. To achieve those goals, we sometimes have to incur exceptional costs to reduce wildfire risk and /or respond to emergency events like wildfires and storms, which exceed what we've previously been authorized to spend in rate proceedings."

It appears PG&E wants the money, fast.

"The worst part is that PG&E is not only asking the CPUC to approve $2 billion, but they want to start collecting in March, even before the PUC has decided whether the $2 billion is reasonable," says Torey.

The PUC has not announced when it will decide on this new request.

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