A $33 a month average rate hike took effect Jan. 1. Now PG&E wants up to $20 a month more. Reformers say it is time to cap annual increases.
With no cap on price increases for California’s utilities, Pacific Gas & Electric will hike rates 13%, which it says is needed for upgrades.
Activists have sent a loud and clear message to the California Public Utilities Commission: L.A. and the state should make electric transportation in the city and at the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports a priority.
As California regulators decide whether to reopen the Aliso Canyon natural gas storage facility, the site of the largest human-caused release of greenhouse gasses in U.S. history, residents and activists vow to redouble their fight against its reopening.
Reversing climate change and addressing income inequality are the twin challenges of our time. Solving them both means a safer, more stable future for generations to come.
If we don’t stop and reverse climate change, our environment and our economy could collapse. If we don’t address the growing gap between rich and poor, our political structures and our economy will continue to fray, robbing us of both the funds and the political will to address climate change.
These challenges are irreversibly linked — and we can’t solve one without solving them both.
That’s why progressives, labor leaders and everyone who cares about addressing these twin threats should oppose the California Public Utilities Commission’s recently proposed decision to require poor utility customers to subsidize richer customers and the new Wall Street-funded quasi-utilities serving these wealthy customers.
The CPUC’s decision is on a technical issue called Net Energy Metering: the system that provides subsidies for the installation of residential solar systems by forcing utilities to buy surplus energy generated on rooftops at an artificially high price.
» Read more about: Solar Decision Will Burn Low-Income Californians »
