Regulators with California’s Public Utility Commission approved rate hikes for three of the largest utility companies in the state on Dec. 19, with higher prices expected starting next year for ratepayers who already see bills that are almost double the national average.
The utility commission granted Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E)—the largest energy provider in the state supplying nearly 16 million Californians—its fifth and sixth rate hikes of 2024.
Over the next year, ratepayers will reimburse the utility giant $723 million to pay for operating the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant and nearly $376 million for vegetation management performed in 2020.
A rate increase request was filed after the company spent more clearing trees and protecting transmission lines than commissioners approved in prior hearings, but regulators said during the meeting that the unique circumstances of 2020 made the lack of compliance understandable….