{"id":49196,"date":"2025-10-06T12:25:03","date_gmt":"2025-10-06T19:25:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/earthjustice.org\/?post_type=from_the_experts&p=49196"},"modified":"2025-10-09T11:38:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-09T18:38:08","slug":"a-new-law-can-cut-expenses-that-shouldnt-be-in-californians-utility-bills","status":"publish","type":"from_the_experts","link":"https:\/\/earthjustice.org\/experts\/matt-vespa\/a-new-law-can-cut-expenses-that-shouldnt-be-in-californians-utility-bills","title":{"rendered":"A New Law Can Cut Expenses that Shouldn\u2019t Be in Californians’ Utility Bills"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Gavin

Governor Gavin Newsom speaks onstage during the NYT Climate Forward panel at Climate Week 2025. (Yana Paskova \/ Getty Images for NYT)<\/p><\/div>\n

If you\u2019ve paid utility bills in California over the past several years, you\u2019ve no doubt seen your bills go up \u2014 probably by a lot.\u00a0 What you may not know is that some of what you\u2019re paying goes far beyond keeping your lights on, and you may be footing the bill for lobbying and corporate image polishing for monopoly utilities. Some utilities in California have been caught slipping exorbitant costs into customers\u2019 bills \u2014 and it\u2019s time California put a stop to it with AB 1167, the California Ratepayer Protection Act<\/a>.\u00a0The bill has been passed by the state legislature. Now, it needs Governor Newsom\u2019s signature to become law.<\/p>\n

The dirty secret of utilities abusing of customer funds in California came to light several years ago, when the Sacramento Bee<\/i> reported that SoCalGas spent a staggering $36 million lobbying against California cities\u2019 climate and clean air policies, and then passed those costs on to its customers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Likewise, PG&E was caught last year trying to use $6 million in wildfire funding \u2014 paid for by customers to address wildfires \u2014 to bankroll TV ads<\/a> aimed at polishing the company\u2019s tarnished image. It\u2019s outrageous that they tried to slip customers the bill for that particular rehabilitation project. Keep in mind, PG&E\u2019s rates have increased by 41% in the last 3 years<\/a>, far outpacing inflation and fueling the affordability crisis in the Bay Area.\u00a0And while Californians struggle to pay their gas and electric bills, these monopoly utilities report soaring profits. PG&E reaped record profits for the second year in a row in 2024, reaping $2.47 billion in profits<\/a> while requesting approval for six rate hikes on its customers that year.\u00a0And for another example, SoCal Edison hit $1.62 billion in profits<\/a> for shareholders in 2024, after increasing rates by 9.8% last year.<\/p>\n

\"The

The facade of the Pacific Gas and Electric Company building in downtown San Francisco. (Smith Collection \/ Gado \/ Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

While utilities should not be slipping the costs of their political and promotional activities into customer bills, they are currently incentivized to see what they can get away with.\u00a0This is because uncovering misuse of customer money takes significant time and resources, often requires overcoming utility obstruction, and when utilities are found to have improperly charged customers, they often claim inadvertent error. In the face of discovery from regulators or advocacy organizations doing investigations, utilities will simply move the costs to a shareholder account and face no other repercussions.<\/p>\n

If you rob a bank, and the only consequence for getting caught is returning the money you tried to steal, you are incentivized to keep robbing banks.\u00a0This is how things work now when it comes to utilities slipping lobbying and promotional costs into customer bills and what AB 1167 is designed to stop.<\/p>\n

Authored by California Assemblymember Marc Berman, AB 1167<\/a> establishes a needed structure to ensure utilities properly account for their political and promotional expenses:<\/p>\n