You Deserve Affordable Utility Bills

Californians are suffering from utility rate hikes that are causing our cost of living to skyrocket. 

Utilities are crucial to our energy future. That’s why we are urging lawmakers to hold utilities accountable by investing in clean, affordable energy instead of raising rates to fund lobbying and PR efforts.

Lawmakers can protect Californians from soaring utility bills.

Sign your name to tell lawmakers to demand rate relief and pass SB 330, AB 1167, AB 1020, SB 636, and SB 24.

Utility Accountability Act (AB 1020)

The Utility Accountability Act would require investor-owned utilities (IOUs) to report all sources of non-traditional (non-ratepayer) funding, like federal and state agency grants or loans, when seeking ratepayer dollars. Thorough reporting would ensure the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) can be informed when authorizing IOUs to receive the appropriate amount of ratepayer dollars, and that expected savings are being passed on to ratepayers.

The California Ratepayer Protection Act will keep the cost of utility lobbying, promotional advertising, and other activities that primarily benefit the utility shareholders out of Californians’ energy bills. In doing so, this bill will ensure accountability and transparency for how investor-owned utilities (IOUs) spend ratepayer dollars, and prevent these funds from being used inappropriately.

This legislation would prevent investor-owned utilities (IOUs) from charging ratepayers for certain costs, like industry association dues, promotional advertising, and political activities, and bars them from using ratepayer dollars to fight against municipalization. Municipalization refers to transitioning to a publicly-owned utility structure, such as the LADWP or SMUD, which often have lower electricity rates as not-for-profit entities.

This bill would allow for pilot projects to be established to develop, finance, and operate electrical transmission infrastructure. Transmission lines, which move electricity from the generation site, are among the costliest to build. These high costs are reflected by customers’ energy bills. The pilot projects from this bill will spur development and buildout of much-needed lower-cost transmission alternatives.

This bill would allow ratepayers facing certain “hardship”, like a death in the family or loss of employment, to be eligible to defer their payment by three months. This ratepayer protection would work in tandem with other ratepayer assistance programs like California’s CARE and FERA, to give ratepayers flexibility when unavoidable crises arise.