PG&E just added over $400 to your electric bill. There’s a better way: Public power.
Talk about getting the new year off on the wrong foot. After a year of lobbying state regulators, PG&E has raised your electric and gas bill by more than $400 a year as of January 1st.
This latest rate hike, only a few years after PG&E exited bankruptcy in 2020, is more than a 50% increase in PG&E’s charges over the last four years alone.
Consumer advocates say this could just be the beginning as PG&E continues to overspend and mismanage operations—anticipating the total bill could increase by an additional $800 per year by the end of 2024. PG&E has also announced that it plans to start issuing cash dividends to shareholders again in 2024 – boosting Wall Street profits while raising rates on the rest of us.
In case you missed the recent headlines:
PG&E becomes California's most expensive power provider (NBC News)
PG&E announces yet another increase to utility bills (San Francisco Chronicle)
It doesn’t have to be like this: Public power is a better option—and the only way to end PG&E price gouging.
San Franciscans are paying PG&E too much for too little, and it’s only getting worse. But there’s a better option, right here in the City.
Even before PG&E’s latest rate hike, San Francisco’s public power utility was already offering the lowest rates for electricity service in San Francisco while providing consistently higher customer-service ratings. The City’s customers have seen firsthand all the benefits of public power:
Safe and Reliable: Public power electric utilities across California have proven track records of providing safer, more reliable power than PG&E. The City has been providing clean power to San Francisco for over 100 years.
More Affordable: Public power means lower rates—because unlike PG&E, the City doesn’t need to pay executives tens of millions of dollars or dole out dividends to Wall Street shareholders.
Clean and Green: Locally controlled public power is 100% clean and the fastest way for San Francisco to reach its climate goals. Together, Hetch Hetchy Power and CleanPowerSF meet over 75% of San Francisco’s electricity supply needs – and those supplies are cleaner than PG&E’s.
PG&E isn’t giving San Franciscans any reasons to stay. That’s why the City offered the utility $2.5 billion to purchase the local grid—and continues to make progress in expanding public power.
The movement is growing. It’s Our City. It’s Our Power.
Learn more about what you can do to support the shift to a safer, cleaner, and more affordable power system: publicpowersf.org.
