Pirate's Cove

It’s truly lovely when support for climate cult legislation rears up and bites the cultists square in the derriere, eh?

Anger builds over sweeping change in the way most Californians will pay for electricity

With little debate two years ago, state lawmakers passed a complex energy bill that enabled a sweeping change in how most Californians are billed for electricity.

The legislation was what Pacific Gas & Electric had asked for from the state public utilities commission three months before: a transformation of electric rates so that households would pay a fixed charge each month in exchange for lower rates for each kilowatt hour they used.

Gov. Gavin Newsom submitted the bill as part of a massive 2022 budget revision. In four days, it was passed out of an Assembly committee hearing without discussion, approved by the full Assembly and Senate and signed by Newsom.

The state’s three largest investor-owned power companies that pushed for the change say it will encourage Californians to ditch cars and appliances that run on planet-warming fossil fuels and replace them with vehicles, stoves and heaters that operate on electricity from solar panels and wind turbines. They also say the new monthly fee would allow them to more evenly allocate fixed costs among customers.

The majority of citizens of the People’s Republik Of California voted for the people who quickly passed this, and, at the time, most Californians thought the legislation was the bee’s knees. They thought they would get the hook up on cheap energy bills in a state that is one of the highest in the nation. They were warned that this was a Bad Idea

But opponents say the legislation was a financial gift to PG&E, Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric, and will cause millions of Californians who live in small homes or apartments that use little electricity to pay more, while residents in large homes that use a lot of electricity will save money.

Gee, ya think?

Now, as governor-appointed members of the California Public Utilities Commission prepare to approve a $24 monthly charge at a May 9 meeting, some lawmakers who voted for the original legislation are trying to reverse it. A coalition of more than 250 environmental and community groups are also protesting the law, claiming that its approval smacks of an all too cozy relationship between utility companies, regulators and think tank researchers.

Opponents complain that the new law eliminates a $10 cap on fixed charges that had been in place since 2013, and that there is now nothing to prevent the utilities from raising it higher and higher.

Consequences are not fun, eh? The little Warmists thought everything would be lollipops and unicorns, even with the evidence in front of their faces.

Of course, the LA Times, politicians, climate cult groups, and others are trying to blame PGE, who are not blameless, but, the politicians aren’t taking the blame, and this couldn’t happen without their votes. Nor could it happen without the votes from the citizens who voted for the Democratic Party politicians.

The next day, AB 205 and 28 other trailer bills addressing issues ranging from cannabis regulation to reproductive rights, were presented at a hearing of the Assembly Budget Committee.

According to a transcript, the committee’s leaders limited public discussion to one hour. The fixed electric charge was not mentioned.

Why would the elites want to hear from the little people? The politicians simply know better, so, shut up, plebes.