Berkeley photo voltaic vitality activists took offense to a web-based “love” letter final month to prospects from PG&E CEO Patricia Poppe and responded with a Valentine of their very own.
The sentiment of her message sparked a civil protest. Activists from the Photo voltaic Rights Alliance, an advocacy group for photo voltaic vitality customers, on Tuesday arrange a desk on the South Berkeley Farmers’ Market to supply folks the possibility to inform PG&E what they suppose within the context of an “un-Valentine”card. The group collected dozens of handmade playing cards, which they mailed to Poppe.
“From day one I said, ‘leading with love’ would be key to our transformation,” Poppe wrote within the Jan. 8 letter, referring to California’s vitality transition away from fossil fuels.
“Energy use in California has been decreasing over the past 15 years because of advances in energy efficiency and solar adoption,” Poppe wrote. “However, because our rates are based on dividing total costs by the units of energy used, when customers overall use less energy, it means rates rise. And that unfortunately impacts our most financially vulnerable customers.”
“More than 90% of the rate hikes of the last decade are due to utility spending increases on poles and wires,” mentioned Dave Rosenfeld of the Photo voltaic Rights Alliance. “When people use less energy, the utilities don’t have to build as many poles and wires. This saves all ratepayers, but it also eats into utility profits.”
Un-Valentine playing cards collected by activists with the Photo voltaic Rights Alliance collected earlier than being despatched to PG&E CEO Patricia Poppe on Feb. 11, 2025 in Berkeley, Calif. (Steve Tomich through Bay Metropolis Information)
The CPUC’s Return on Fairness coverage permits a specific amount of revenue annually primarily based on new spending on transmission and distribution, mentioned Rosenfeld.
“Utilities get a guaranteed 8% to 10% profit from every dollar they spend building new poles and wires, so they scapegoat people who use less energy through conservation or rooftop solar,” he mentioned.
In 2023, PG&E introduced a 2023-2026 Common Price Case, which defined their deliberate charges for the close to future. The California Public Utilities Fee authorized the charges that very same yr. It specified a 12.8% enhance in 2024, a 1.6% enhance in 2025 and a lower by 2.8% in 2026. Have they caught to the speed hike schedule?
“You have to remember that only 50% of the bills are decided in a general rate case,” mentioned Mark Toney, govt director of The Utility Reform Community, a nonprofit shopper advocacy group.
Toney mentioned the unique goal of getting the final price case was to have all of the income necessities, the entire cash that the corporate would gather, determined in a single huge case.
“But now there are so many other rate cases. Energy efficiency is separate. Wildfire spending is separate. Diablo Canyon is separate. And there’s a big, long list of things that are completely separate from the general rate case,” he mentioned. “Electric vehicle charging stations. I mean, I can go on and on. This is what they’ve been approved. There were five other non-general rate case increases approved in 2024.”
“PG&E and the other utilities are asserting dominion over all electricity generated within their service areas with a right to charge the full retail rate even for power that is not delivered and not consumed by a customer. No other corporation makes such a bold claim.”
Richard McCann, M. Cubed
Toney mentioned that a part of the explanation the charges are so excessive is as a result of there are not any limits to how a lot they will request; no restrict to what number of instances a yr they will ask for a rise; and there are not any limits to how a lot of a price enhance the CPUC can grant. Whether or not the charges will lower in 2026, he mentioned, is a query of what the speed is in comparison with.
“That’s part of what we’re fighting for over with the Legislature. It may be a decrease from 2025, but it’s certainly an increase from where it started before the 12% increase in 2024,” he mentioned.
Richard McCann is a coverage analyst and cofounder of the nonprofit M. Cubed, which focuses on utility coverage for native governments. He displays how charges change over time and located that PG&E raised charges by 50% from 2022 to 2024. He mentioned a lower is unlikely for 2026, particularly if PG&E will get its requested enhance towards improve prices for the Diablo Canyon nuclear energy plant.
Un-Valentine playing cards collected by activists with the Photo voltaic Rights Alliance collected earlier than being despatched to PG&E CEO Patricia Poppe on Feb. 11, 2025 in Berkeley, Calif. (Steve Tomich through Bay Metropolis Information)
“PG&E and the other utilities are asserting that rooftop solar customers are shirking their cost ‘responsibility’ because they are ‘departing’ the utility system,” McCann mentioned. “The utilities are asserting dominion over all electricity generated within their service areas with a right to charge the full retail rate even for power that is not delivered and not consumed by a customer. No other corporation makes such a bold claim.”
Enhancements to the facility grid have been talked about within the on-line letter from Poppe, together with the extension of operations for Diablo Canyon and including extra battery storage and renewables. She mentioned that resulted in zero Flex Alerts or rolling blackouts final yr, even in the course of the hottest July on report and a particularly sizzling October.
“As for company practices, we’re teaching our workforce how to put you, the customer, first in decision making, and how to do that at a lower cost,” Poppe’s letter mentioned. “That’s right, believe it or not, we want you to feel the love from PG&E every day.”
