Thursday night ratepayers had the chance to tell the California Public Utilities Commission how they feel about PG&E's request for rate increases. Increases that would raise the company's revenue by $4.2 billion over the next three years. PG&E submitted their request to the CPUC late last year and the commission has until the end of this year to make any revisions and approve or deny the request for increases. But first, they're asking what consumers think.
Over the next three years, PG&E wants to increase their revenue by $4.2 billion. The company says the money is a necessity, needed to maintain aging systems including 15,000 aging power poles.
For an electric customer who uses about 500 killowatt hour of energy per month, their bill would go up 3.2 percent.
But utility watchdogs, such as The Utility Reform Network, say the company asked for rate hikes back in 2007 to do that same maintenance. "It's proposed to be maintenance but what we've seen is expenditures on things like expensive programs like SmartMeters that don't seem to be benefiting consumers. Expensive ballot measures," said Kori Chen with TURN.
The $9.4 million a year salary of the company's CEO was brought up several times at the hearing, as a possible place to cutback instead of raising rates. "In order to attract and retain talent needed to run a company and best serve our customers we have to offer attractive compensation packages," said PG&E spokesman David Eisenhauer. Eisenhauer also says it's important to note that a lot of that money comes from shareholders, not rate-payers.
"They're wasting taxpayers money. They should go out and fix their towers and their poles with the money they already received years ago," said Wilbur Dimel, a PG&E customer. The CPUC judge listened to complaints from customers, like Dimel, who say they're already struggling under the strain of high power bills and they fear what another rate hike would do. "I'd have to eliminate something else out of my budget. Turn off more of my electricity," said Dimel.
The CPUC is holding hearings like this across the state. The commentary will be typed up and given to the CPUC commissioners before they make their decision on whether or not to approve PG&E's revenue increase request.
