Are California’s electricity rates about to skyrocket?

CAPITOL WEEKLY PODCAST: Loretta Lynch is fired up.

The former President of the California Public Utilities Commission is sounding the alarm on a proposed change to California’s commercial electricity providers’ rate structure that, she says, will dramatically increase rates for electricity customers. AB 205 easily passed the legislature and was signed by the Governor as a Budget Trailer Bill back in the summer of 2022. It received little attention at the time, although some observers did flag it as a stretch of the Trailer Bill application.

AB 205 allows utilities to set a tiered rate structure based on the customer’s income, rather than a straight rate for electricity used. Proponents of the change say that the tiered structure will protect lower-income customers as electricity rates increase – they have already doubled in the past decade – and that the higher-income users will offset the lower rates paid by lower tier customers. Lynch argues that California’s private electric companies are already charging higher rates than companies in other states and that there are no protections for lower income consumers actually in the bill. Now, Lynch and other critics of AB 205 including members of the legislature, are urging the CPUC to intervene before it’s too late.

Show Notes:

:50 A big spike in electricity rates?

2:39 AB205

4:46 The rate tiers

6:11 Urban vs. rural?

8:27 privacy concerns

12:14 Where is this push coming from?

13:51 Do the raised rates have to fund a specific project?

16:04 “The PUC is no longer a watch dog – it’s a lap dog”

16:47 A cash grab?

19:08 Lawmaker pushback

21:37 What can the PUC do?

25:02 Convert PG&E to a publicly-owned utility?

28:54 What role does the Governor have?

32:10 Shameless plug for the Education Conference

33:43 #WWCA