today is a good day for Californians to read the January 2025 Legislative Analyst’s Office report which details how investor owned utilities (for-profit) pass climate mitigation and wildfire response costs on to you, pushing rates more than 50% higher than public utilities lao.ca.gov/reports/2025... - ThreadSky

jelenawoehr.bsky.social • 48 days ago

today is a good day for Californians to read the January 2025 Legislative Analyst’s Office report which details how investor owned utilities (for-profit) pass climate mitigation and wildfire response costs on to you, pushing rates more than 50% higher than public utilities https://lao.ca.gov/reports/2025/4950/Residential-Electricity-Rates-010725.pdf

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bob0colo.bsky.social•47 days ago

Utility Privatization a very bad deal for Consumers....ENRON then the others Wreaking California's economy. That Privatization keeps Giving to Folks

jelenawoehr.bsky.social•48 days ago

as much as we Angelenos hate LADWP, its rates are up to 70% lower than profit-driven So Cal Edison which serves some of the same areas, e.g. Culver City where SCE customers see far higher bills than LADWP customers!

dfohio.bsky.social•48 days ago

I'm so glad that we get our power from SMUD! (They should, however, consider ditching the current name for something snazzier like "SacPow.")

sfshlv.bsky.social•48 days ago

Now we have SMUD, too. When we are in outside Sacramento, we used to have PG&E. The rate of SMUD is far reasonable than that of PG&E. We are happy we are in the area SMUD supplies power.

wombat-ee.bsky.social•47 days ago

It’s more geography than anything. Most munis in California are in compact areas without a lot of fire danger (and lines needing upgrades to cope with fire danger). IOUs have the mountains and those areas are currently the most expensive, and that cost gets passed to city customers too.

wombat-ee.bsky.social•47 days ago

Not that I’m against public utilities. I’m a fan. My family had SMUD when I still lived in Sac and they were excellent. But IOU vs public only accounts for maybe 10% of the difference (from the regulated rate of return). All other costs get passed through to customers for both.

jelenawoehr.bsky.social•47 days ago

Interesting! From your perspective what would you propose to control power costs for low and middle income users while also investing sufficiently in climate and fire mitigation?

wombat-ee.bsky.social•47 days ago

Honestly would require state or federal funding, unless we want to pursue income-based flat charges (which didn’t go over so well the last time it was proposed). It’s pretty hard to break the link between a dollar spent by the utility and a dollar collected from customers.

pardontherant.bsky.social•48 days ago

Not knowing about the particulars with California’s regulatory environment, does CPUC bake the amount IOU’s can return as shareholder profit into their rate case filing?

jelenawoehr.bsky.social•48 days ago

this is a very good question and I suspect the answer is yes but let me quote it and see if one of my followers can answer with more authority

pardontherant.bsky.social•48 days ago

I only ask because I’m curious, given the content of the report, how much of the cost differential comes down to what IOUs need to include to pay for state climate goals and fire mitigation vs. POUs depending on their service territories and differences in rate obligations.

jelenawoehr.bsky.social•47 days ago

This user seems to have relevant expertise and an answer for you: https://bsky.app/profile/wombat-ee.bsky.social/post/3lfbbtx6mes2f

pardontherant.bsky.social•47 days ago

That’s along the lines of what I expected. Unfortunately, Cali has pretty severe fire risk to mitigate at the same tile they’re trying to push really aggressive climate action. It’s doable, but expensive and complicated in a whole host of ways.

momokt.bsky.social•47 days ago

PG&E just got their 6th rate increase in one calendar year!!! Wtf?!?!?!! They CHOSE NOT YO BURY POWERLINES IN THE SIERRAS!!! IT WAS TOO EXPENSIVE!!!!!!! Not for them now with their customers forced to reimburse them for the costs of their mistakes!!

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