With energy costs up 7.8 percent last month, the state should tap its budget surplus to offset electric rates, the North County Supervisor wrote
California should set aside part of its budget surplus to relieve skyrocketing energy costs for consumers, San Diego County Supervisor Jim Desmond stated in a letter to Gov. Gavin Newsom Wednesday.soaring electric billsSDG&E officials say the class average electric rate for residential customers rose 7.8 percent in January over the previous month, from 32 cents per kilowatt-hour to 34.5 cents. Add to that thethat San Diego saw in January and many San Diegans are feeling a financial crunch.
Desmond said in an interview he has been receiving about 15 calls per day from residents in his district who are struggling to pay power bills.“My constituents are concerned with their ability to pay for recent increased energy bills, especially seniors who are on fixed incomes,” Desmond wrote in the letter.
Rate hikes stem from rising fuel costs, renewable energy infrastructure, wildfire response measures and increased energy assistance programs, he stated. For instance, SDG&E has spent $3 billion in the last 10 years to make communities more fire resistant, while hardening electric grids and undergrounding powerlines.
The utility company has passed the costs onto ratepayers, but Desmond said the state should cover some of those public investments through its projected $45.7 billion surplus.SDG&E spokesman Anthony Wagner said the utility company had nothing to add to Desmond’s communication to the governor.
“The State’s budget surplus comes from taxpayers, many of whom have suffered mightily from a pandemic, losing their job and seeing gas prices rise dramatically,” he wrote. “Let’s give it back to the taxpayers by lowering their energy bills.”
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