California Senate bill aims to limit utility rates hikes

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- A freshman state senator has proposed a bill to rein in PG&E costs and reduce rate hikes.

Month after month, Rebeca Rangel receives PG&E bills that are $200 - $300 despite having solar panels on her Fresno home.

Rangel said she has health issues and has worked with the company on payment plans, but several weeks ago she started receiving notices that her bill needed to be paid off and soon.

"I make payments every single month, even if it's only $50 more often than not it's 100 trying to stay at the top of it," said Rebeca Rangel, Fresno local.

"They can see that. And yet, they give me 15-day notices, like in January, and then in February, the first week of this month, gave me a week notice, I don't know, seven days, 10 days, so it feels hostile."

A new bill introduced by freshman state Senator Aisha Wahab aims to put restrictions on investor-owned utility companies, such as PG&E.

One of those restrictions is prohibiting the shut-off of utilities for specified vulnerable ratepayers, like Rangel, to ensure their health and safety needs are met.

The bill would also limit PG&E and other utilities to one rate hike per year for residential customers.

The increase would be limited to no more than the Consumer Price Index, which is used to measure the rate at which prices increase.

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

"There were organizations that have increased at more than 4 times the national average right, and have far outpaced inflation and have also the highest rates in the Continental US

This bill is being introduced as PG&E announced record profits of $2.47 billion for 2024.

Over the same time, California state regulators agreed to six separate rate increases.

PG&E provided Action News with this statement in response to the bill:

"We know that many customers are impacted by higher costs, including energy. We are taking action to limit future rate increases and stabilize customer bills, including reducing our materials and labor costs, more efficiently planning and executing work, and lower our financing costs. Our investments are delivering results for customers, and we're committed to building the safe, reliable and climate-resilient energy system they expect and deserve at the lowest possible cost."

Wahab expects an uphill battle to get this bill passed.

However, the utility justice group, Reclaim Our Power, said it's a good start to long-term solutions.

"We are paying exorbitant amounts of money just to keep the lights on and their shareholders are making historic all-time high profits right," said Travis Gibrael, Reclaim our Power! "And so anybody who sees that connection. if that doesn't anger you, if that doesn't upset you, if that doesn't galvanize you and motivate you to call your senator and tell them, yes, we need to change the system."

Parts of ratepayer PG&E bills go towards the Wildfire Fund, which utility companies can pull from when responsible for causing wildfires.

This Senate bill would decrease how much ratepayers pay into the fund and increase what companies put in.

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