SDG&E's "ABC" RATE HIKE: A rrogant, B izarre, and C allow demand for your money

In what has to be the most arrogant and bizarre rate hike ever demanded by a utility, San Diego Gas & Electric has filed legal documents with state regulators seeking permission to raise rates by $29 million per year for the foreseeable future to pay for insurance premium hikes.   Why have SDG&E's insurance costs gone up so much?  Because of the 2007 fires that wiped out much of eastern San Diego County.  And why did the fires occur?  Because, according to PUC staff and state fire officials, SDG&E didn't properly maintain and operate its transmission and distribution lines.  

UCAN will be fighting this rate increase, but if SDG&E's request is approved, SDG&E will be forcing YOU to pay for its negligence -- negligence that contributed to the wildfires for which SDG&E's insurers are now demanding "repayment" for $80 million that they expect to pay in claims. 

SDG&E's malfeasance began at half-past noon on October 21, 2007 when SDG&E's defective power lines arced, starting the Witch Creek and Rice Canyon fires, which destroyed 1,350 homes,  killed two SDG&E customers,  and injured 40 firefighters.   FACT: Since that time, SDG&E has admitted to causing 167 fires in the last five years.

That report is so damning that SDG&E tried to stop you from reading it.

Even though the courts have found that SDG&E is liable for much of the disaster, the utility wants to shift the cost of paying for damages away from its shareholders and place the debts squarely onto the shoulders of its long-suffering customers (that would be you).

Because SDG&E is a privately owned monopoly with profits that are guaranteed by appointed government bureaucrats, it must seek approval for the rate hike from the blatantly utility-friendly California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC).  And even though CPUC is chartered to protect ratepayers, it is headed by the former president of Southern California Edison, Michael Peevey who has proven to be very friendly to the utilities when they come asking for money.

In the coming months, UCAN's experts will be offering testimony to the PUC to show how SDG&E shouldn't be allowed to charge customers for its own negligence and how SDG&E could be spending more time trying to find lower premiums than it should just trying to pass the costs onto its customers.  We urge you to support this vital work now.