By Scott Steward
The necessary actions to combat climate changes are too slow – obvious. Here is some of what the youth had to say to us adults on April 19th. Our local youth from Fresno, Davis, and Sacramento made their voices (short movie clip here) heard at the Capital this past Friday.
California has made good progress, and Yolo County has made more progress. We hope Davis will be as focused and insistent on necessary changes as well.
What can adults do today to help our children's tomorrow? There are many, but one thing stands out in our State, and that is to reverse the 2022-2023 damage inflicted by the California Public Utility Commission (CPUC), shielded by Governor Newsom, to raise our rates and just about crush the last 25 years of residential renewable energy progress in California.
Your utility bills have gone up 30% to pay $5.7 Billion to PG&E to cover climate change costs that an energy judge has already ruled are twice the $2.7 Billion needed. Please consider taking action and reading the op/ed written by Loretta Lynch, former Chair of the CPUC, who got us out of the Enron crisis 20 years ago. Paywall – so the article in full requires a temporary subscription to SF Chronicle – here is an excerpt.
"The Public Utilities Commission’s rubberstamping of unproven, unwarranted, unjust electricity costs must stop. It is up to the state Legislature to inject sanity into the regulatory system and protect California families and businesses from ruinous, undeserved rate increases.
Thankfully, legislators have introduced AB1999 to stop this increase and cap any fixed charge at $5 for low-income customers and $10 for other customers. AB2054 would stop the revolving door of former commissioners moving to jobs with utilities and scrutinize utility funds, and SB938 would stop ratepayers from paying for utility lobbying and advertising, among other reforms."
Former Chairperson Loretta Lynch did not want to distract from the abuses of the current CPUC. What she did not say is that the fair competition with PG&E from the independent residential and small commercial solar industry, an industry that has added mightily to our energy grid security (saving us from blackouts and higher rates), has been devastated by the 2022-23 CPUC rate decisions
The for-profit utilities knew precisely what they were doing when they snowed the CPUC into raising fees and eliminating NEM2 (the rate that paid you and me for producing electricity at a price close to what PG&E charges—1 for 1).
Last Wednesday, the State Utilities and Energy Committee would not allow evidence showing the direct relationship between the California residential solar industry's plummet (dozens of residential solar company bankruptcies) and the unfair rates imposed on rate-payers and unfair pricing for residential independently produced solar and storage capacity.
There is an opening to save AB 1999 and prevent egregious fees. On April 24th – Assembly Energy Chair Petrie-Norris (Ventura) needs to pass AB 1999 through the committee (if you have a friend in her district, have them call) Assembly Utilities and Energy Committee Chair, Petrie-Norris (916) 319-2073:
Your city and county probably have a climate adaptation and action plan that depends on being able to build solar and electricity storage of all shapes and sizes for municipal buildings, local businesses, and residences – apartments and single-family homes. That's not PG&E's plan. The for-profit regulated monopoly is planning a different kind of adaptation. It plans to collect all your hard work investing in local renewable power and electricity storage and put that work into their pockets—bankrupting your future of sustainable, affordable energy. It's past time to get rid of this troublesome profit-skimming scheme called PG&E, but for now, we do what is right in front of us.
Getting AB 1999 across the finish line is one action we can take today; tomorrow is too late.
Davisite 
Leave a reply to Keith Cancel reply