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« on: January 18, 2024, 08:25:21 PM »
According a news report yesterday, the California Public Utility Commission is moving forward with a plan that would charge the state's electric utility rate payers a flat fee (tax?) based upon their income, in addition to the cost of the electric power that they use each month. The report said that the idea is not going over very well with many of the state's residents as the word starts getting around. No doubt more detailed news will follow soon.
A former PUC president who was being interviewed yesterday on the local radio news station, KCBS, and was trying to explain the plan, mentioned that Governor Newsom backed the idea. She also said that a bill supporting this rate plan was passed by the state's legislators at the last minute and signed into law late last year without any sort of public hearing or public input. But it still needs to be approved by the state's PUC, which they could do this summer.
If this rate plan, which was originally proposed by PG&E, is approved by the PUC, I wouldn't be surprised to hear that even utility customers who do not use any electricity would also be billed for this flat income "fee" each month.