OAKLAND — PG&E customers face the forbidding prospect of higher monthly bills — starting this spring — now that a state law judge has smoothed out the pathway for interim rate relief for PG&E.
An administrative law judge for the state Public Utilities Commission has issued a proposed decision that clears the way for the PUC commissioners to make a final decision in March that would authorize PG&E to extract more money from customers. Law Judge Camille Watts-Zagha issued the proposal.
PG&E customers could be paying $4 to $6 more a month for their utility service if the powerful five-member PUC panel agrees with the proposal issued by the PUC law judge, estimated Mark Toney, executive director of the
The higher bills could take effect in April or May if the PUC agrees with the proposed ruling.
“PG&E is authorized to recover a maximum of $516 million (75 percent of PG&E’s total request of $688 million) in interim rates,” Judge Watts-Zagha stated in her proposed decision.
The PUC is slated to meet in early March to decide on the judge’s proposed ruling.
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Oakland-based PG&E wants interim approval for the higher bills to cover recent expenditures in 2022 and 2023 linked to wildfire mitigation, vegetation management and catastrophic winter storms.
And despite its predictions of a profitable 2024, PG&E said it must confront an intensified squeeze on its finances.
“Interim rate relief would help mitigate the extraordinary financial pressure currently facing PG&E,” the company stated in a regulatory filing.
Toney believes the PUC will agree to the proposal. He noted that the state PUC has approved four prior requests by PG&E for interim rate relief.
“The chances are good that this will sail right through,” Toney said.