California Advocate Urges Consumers to Stop Paying Energy Bills

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California Utility Advocate Urges Consumers to Stop Paying Energy Bills Source: Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News Publication date: 2000-07-26

Jul. 26--The consumer advocate leading the charge against skyrocketing electricity bills in southern Orange County and San Diego is urging ratepayers to withhold some utility payments in protest until state regulators intervene to solve the crisis. Michael Shames, the executive director of the Utility Consumers Action Network, hopes the action will put extra heat on lawmakers in Sacramento as it draws attention to the plight of San Diego Gas & Electric's 1.2 million customers, including about 100,000 in southern Orange County.

As the only residential customers in the country to pay free-market prices for electricity, they have watched helplessly this summer as their monthly bills doubled and in some cases even tripled.

"SDG&E and the California Public Utility Commission should get a sense of how many customers are being squeezed by these absurdly high rates," Shames said. "The underpayment statistics will document that squeeze."

Shames plans a demonstration next Wednesday, on the eve of a key meeting of the CPUC, where customers will be invited to burn their monthly SDG&E bills in front of the state office building in downtown San Diego.

A bonfire planned for today had to be scrubbed because of permit problems.

So far, officials in Sacramento have been reluctant to intervene in the state's electricity market, which was deregulated in the spring of 1998. Two weeks ago, Shames called on the CPUC to roll back rates in SDG&E's service area and launch a probe into possible market manipulation, but the commission has not embraced the plan.

Instead, the CPUC seems to be leaning toward a plan submitted by SDG&E, which would allow customers to average out their annual bills over 12 monthly payments.

UCAN criticizes the proposal, known as the "level payment plan," for failing to address the fundamental problem of wild price volatility.

So UCAN is encouraging SDG&E's customers to pay only a portion of their monthly bills over the next three months a plan it dubs "UCAN's livable payment plan."

"Pay only what you can afford to pay (it shouldn't be less than what you paid last year) until the Public Utilities Commission steps in and fixes this mess," UCAN says on its Web site. SDG&E said it is willing to be flexible with customers who are having difficulty paying their bills. It encourages them to call the company to work out a plan.

"I want to underscore that we'd like them to give us a call," says SDG&E spokesman Art Larson.

SGD&E also said it is dedicating $16 million over the next two years to fund energy-efficiency programs, such as replacing old, power-gulping refrigerators and air conditioners. The money comes from charges that consumers pay on their bill, designated as "public goods charge." The $16 million is left over from money not used last year.

http://cnniw.yellowbrix.com/pages/cnniw/Story.nsp?story_id=12331121&ID=cnniw&scategory=Utilities

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), July 26, 2000


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