Did You Notice Fee Hikes in Your Last PG&E Bill?

It seems every month there is a new filing for rate increase enclosed in our energy bill. It always comes printed with size 6 font, has 500 to 600 words crammed onto a three-by-six inch piece of paper.

PG&E is still wrangling in the courts and with the Public utilities Commission to have all of us customers that rely on PG&E for our energy pay for the San Bruno fire that destroyed numerous homes and killed people.

Other costs looming out there as a result of the San Bruno fire is an estimated $750 million of investigation costs, records searches and compilation by scanning 3 million records into a computer system, currently in progress in Emeryville.

In this month’s energy bill one of the filings is for a rate increase to pay for the new Oakley generating station project. Come on, Oakley is not in this community. It is not even in this county. Oakley is in Contra Costa County. Let them pay for it.

How much of that power generated at the new Oakley facility goes into the power grid that is then sent out of state? PG&E does not provide that information in the pamphlet enclosed with our energy bill. There are lot of undisclosed unanswered questions not in these pamphlets.

Every customer receiving their energy bills and approaching 850 Kilowatts usage each month from PG&E will pay an additional energy cost upwards of $5.24 each month for just this one rate increase filing, used to pay for the new Oakley facility.

This last month we used 710 Kilowatts energy in our home. That is with ultra-energy conserving lighting, ultra-energy conserving appliances, remembering to turn off satellite feeds when televisions are not in use, etc.

There are two adult people in our home. It is a given that a family with children will exceed the 850 Kilowatts usage each month. And, that is just one rate filing. Read on, there is more.

Another filing for a rate increase enclosed in our bill this month is a request by PG&E to recover in rates the costs PG&E has incurred to comply with market redesign and technology upgrade.

According to the pamphlet enclosed with the energy bill this month, approval of this application will increase rates by 0.07% starting in 2013. Add that onto the $5.24 each month to pay for the new Oakley facility.

Another filing for rate increase is an enclosed pamphlet describing application number 12-03-001 filed with the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC). This filing is asking to establish an economic development rate.

The amount for additional rate for this economic development rate is not disclosed within the pamphlet we received in our energy bill this month. Apparently that rate addition is negotiated somewhere somehow between someone at some point.

The forth pamphlet enclosed in our energy bill this month is application number A. 12-04-018. It is asking the CPUC to approve PG&E to decrease its authorized cost of capitol.

Cost of Capitol is a financial term defining how much a corporation is allowed as a return on its invested capitol. By reducing its cost of capitol, PG&E increases its income and reduces its debt liability, which improves PG&E credit rating.

PG&E emerged from bankruptcy April 2004. While in bankruptcy, April 2001-April 2004, PG&E earned hundreds of millions of dollars. PG&E Corporation stock increased three times from $11.38 to $29.43 a share.

PG&E paid $450 million in legal fees for the bankruptcy filing to several law firms that managed their Chapter 11 bankruptcy. PG&E executives received hundreds of millions in compensation.

With that kind of money flying around, PG&E can afford to pay for the Oakley project. It is not necessary that they pass that cost on to us in the form of rate increases.

PG&E needs to better manage their finances and pay their own way. PG&E also must disclose earnings to us that they receive when sending power out of state via the power grid. Grid power from those same power plants, which we customers have paid for, through rate increases.

I cringe when I think of those hundreds of millions paid out to PG&E corporate executives in bonuses and PG&E did not invest a few thousand dollars for automatic shut off valves on their high pressure gas lines. Such a valve would have prevented the San Bruno disaster.

The current investigation underway is massive when one considers the amount of records involved and the amount of records that do not even exist or have been lost or were never compiled to begin with.

PG&E has already asked the CPUC to approve passing on some of that cost to us customers in the form of rate increases. There are PG&E executives that should go to jail for gross negligence, gross ignorance and gross disinterest in public safety.