‘Outrageous and unacceptable’: PG&E’s massive 2023 profit frustrates customers - KRON4
PG&E's massive 2023 profit frustrates customers
( KRON) – Some PG&E customers are frustrated after hearing the utility increased its profit by almost 25 percent last year, while consumers have seen their rates go up.
PG&E just reported a profit for 2023 of $2.24 billion. That comes following a series of rate hikes that have made customer bills go through the roof.
“The situation is becoming kind of untenable now. It just keeps eating into the money that we can use to live,” said Fremont resident Robert Carter.
For its part, PG&E said, “We’re excited about the future we’re creating for our customers and investors — differentiating ourselves on safety and financial performance while building a system that meets the climate challenges of tomorrow.”
Mark Toney with the Utility Reform Network believes it’s time the California Public Utilities Commission stops rubber-stamping these rate hikes and does what he says is right for consumers.
“The fact that PG&E is booking record profits for shareholders while ratepaying customers have record high bills is completely outrageous and unacceptable,” he said. “Turn has been calling for a cap to annual rate no higher than the cost of living adjustment that’s provided each year by social security.”
Whether that will get any traction is unknown. Right now, customers are dealing with a 13% PG&E rate hike that went into effect at the beginning of the year. Carter says it’s all getting to be too much and his next move may be out of California.
“Starting a family, raising a family… just the economics just don’t work out.”
Related Knowledge Center: Climate economics
Climate change is now a driver of the world’s economy. The impact is profound:
- Catastrophic weather events — hurricanes, floods, droughts, high temperatures — are more frequent and more extreme. The cost can be measured in both the initial damage caused and the longer-term impact on the economy.
- Vulnerable communities are increasing climate-related investments, hardening infrastructure and taking other protective measures.
- Investment in carbon capture and storage technologies is increasingly rapidly.
- Governments are making investments and crafting regulations to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
On top of all of this is the cost of uncertainty. As the Fourth National Climate Assessment, released in 2018 by the U.S. Global Change Research Program, says, “The assumption that current and future climate conditions will resemble the recent past is no longer valid.”