December 8th was not a good day for San Diego. On that day, San Diego Gas & Electric asked state regulators yesterday for permission to raise base rates for electricity and natural gas customers by some $250 million annually for the years 2008 through 2013. You don't need a calculator to realize that adds up to a chilly $1.5 BILLION over those six years. For the average residential customer, that translates to a 2.4% increase in electricity and a 7.2% increase in gas costs. AND THAT's JUST FOR THE WIRES AND PIPES.....it doesn't include the actual cost of electricity or natural gas.

SDG&E's filing claims the proposed increases are attributed to rising operating costs tied to increased government regulation, higher prices for construction materials such as steel and copper, and higher health insurance costs for employees. Of course, it also means substantially higher profits for the company.

The good news is that SDG&E is asking for far more than it will get....and it knows it. The better news is that UCAN has begun to build the estimated $700,000 war chest that will be needed to fight this rate increase. We've already retained two sets of experts to begin reviewing SDG&E's books and we'll be hiring more. We know we will win, but we just don't know how much we'll be able to cut this rate increase until our experts complete their analysis (estimated date: Summer 2007)

So stay tuned to this page. We'll let you know what we find when we find it. A CPUC decision on this application is expected in late 2007, so we have only 12 months to prevent $1.5 billion from being added to San Diegan's monthly burdens.

Listen to UCAN's Executive Director, Michael Shames, break down the SDG&E rate case.