Comments
OPINION - The next 48 hours will determine whether millions of Californians continue paying electricity bills that rise at an unprecedented clip—or whether customers finally get relief from crushing costs.
This Saturday, the California Legislature will vote on legislation I'm co-authoring—SB 254—that would save utility customers billions annually by eliminating excessive corporate profits from essential infrastructure projects. This is the most significant electricity affordability bill in decades, and it couldn't come at a more critical time.
Utility rates have exploded over the past decade—PG&E up 104%, Southern California Edison up 83%—while companies report record profits. This month, the California Public Utilities Commission will vote on a rate hike that will push up bills for Southern California Edison customers by another 10%. Without electricity affordability legislation, this relentless upward pressure on rates will continue. Voters are demanding action: 85% say it is important for their legislative representatives to do everything possible to lower electricity bills this year.
But rate hikes aren't the only burden customers face. Soon, they'll also be asked to pay billions to replenish California's wildfire fund, essentially an insurance policy for utilities that will likely be almost entirely wiped out by the Eaton Fire. Under a compromise included in SB 254, utility customers will foot half the bill for replenishing the fund, while shareholders pay the other half.
For my constituents in Altadena and Pasadena—communities devastated by the very fire that federal prosecutors allege was caused by Edison's "troubling pattern of negligence"—this is an especially bitter pill to swallow. Just days ago, U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli declared that "innocent hardworking Californians who pay their electricity bills should not have to pay for Edison's negligence."
Negotiations over the deal to replenish the wildfire fund have only added urgency to the need for strong affordability policy to stem the tide of rate hikes. But even as utilities walk the halls of Sacramento lobbying for a deal on the wildfire fund, they are still fighting tooth and nail to defeat electricity affordability provisions—all because it would trim a small portion of their profits.
Here's how SB 254 would deliver immediate relief: Currently, more than half of what Californians pay for essential infrastructure like power lines goes toward utility overhead and guaranteed profits, not actual infrastructure. Instead of letting utilities finance infrastructure through expensive shareholder investments, we'll use low-cost bonds backed by ratepayers. For transmission infrastructure, public financing could cut costs by at least 50%, delivering $3 billion in annual savings.
For the next $6 billion in wildfire and grid safety projects alone, using lower-cost capital eliminates excessive profit margins and reduces costs by at least 40%.
The choice before lawmakers and the Governor this week is simple: stand with the communities that utilities are supposed to serve and the victims of the Eaton Fire by passing SB 254 or continue enabling utility companies to overcharge and treat customers as an insurance policy for corporate negligence.
Let us not wait for another disaster to deliver real accountability and affordability.
(California Senator Sasha Perez represents District 25.)
