ORANGE COUNTY, CA — Southern California residents are facing a new fee in addition to their electricity bill every month unless local leaders succeed in their efforts to kill the fee hike. A fixed monthly $24 fee is scheduled to go into effect this May.
The fee would impact those who get their electricity from the California Public Utility Commission-regulated Pacific Gas and Electric Company, Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas and Electric Company, according to Los Angeles Daily News.
However, the proposed fee is facing some major pushback by local SoCal lawmakers who aim to stop the implementation of the $24 monthly charge.
According to KTLA, the CPUC has offered a reduction of 5 to 7 cents per kilowatt an hour in exchange for the fee. However, Assemblymember Jacqui Irwin (D-Thousand Oaks) told KTLA that’s not enough to offset “skyrocketing” electricity rates.
“Our constituents have had enough and so have we,” she said in a press conference. “It’s time to put some reasoning back into how we charge for electricity in California.”
According to LA Daily News, over the past decade, “PGE rates have increased 127%, SCE rates have increased 91% and SDGE rates have increased 72%.”
To combat the rising rates, Irwin introduced Assembly Bill 1999, which is currently in committee. If the bill passes, the CPUC’s ability to impose the extra fee would be revoked.
