After years of failing to rein in rapidly rising electricity rates, California lawmakers are hoping a radical new approach and billions of dollars in state financing can offer a solution.
Bills moving through the California Senate and Assembly would use money raised from state bonds to help pay for the hugely expensive process of expanding the power grid and making it less vulnerable to wildfires. This path would relieve some pressure on utility customers in California, because funding grid upgrades through bonds is cheaper than doing so through energy bills.
Utility costs have reached a boiling point in California, with customers of the state's three biggest utilities Pacific Gas & Electric, Southern California Edison, and San Diego Gas & Electric now paying almost twice the U.S. average for their power. Nearly one in five customers of these utilities is behind on paying their electric bills, according to a May report from state regulators.
The bills Senate Bill 254, sponsored by Sen. Josh Becker, and Assembly Bill 825, sponsored by Assemblymember Cottie Petrie-Norris, both Democrats aim to lower electricity costs for Californians. Both include provisions that would force the big three utilities to accept public financing for a portion of the tens of billions they plan to spend on their power grids.
