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Ratepayers Launch a National Escalation for Utility Justice
From the Sun Belt to New England, over two dozen coordinated actions were held in 17 states to fight back against monopoly utility companies’ rate hikes and greenwashing.
Aug 20, 2024
Across the country, families rely on utility companies to provide the power we need to heat and cool our homes, cook, bathe, and charge the devices we rely on. But instead of focusing on delivering clean, affordable, reliable power to ratepayers, for-profit utility companies are hiking rates on working families while doubling down on fossil fuels. As temperatures rise and utility bills soar, working families have had enough.
This month, ratepayers launched a nationwide escalation for utility justice. From the Sun Belt to New England, over two dozen coordinated actions were held in 17 states to fight back against utility rate hikes and greenwashing. This is a powerful beginning to a locally led, national movement to demand clean, renewable energy from for-profit utility companies, and stop rate hikes for dirty power.
In New Hampshire, climate activists are opposing a 16% rate hike that has been proposed by Eversource, which serves over 70% of the state. The increase is currently under review by the public utilities commission (PUC). The governor-appointed public utilities commission approved the rate hike, as they have with every cost increase that the utility companies have proposed in the last three years. After grassroots organizers stopped Liberty Utilities, another New Hampshire utility company, from building the Granite Bridge fracked gas pipeline in 2020, Liberty attempted to recoup more than $7 million they spent toward the proposal by raising electricity rates. The public utilities commission denied Liberty’s outrageous request, but this is not the first time a utility company has tried to put their expensive failed fossil fuel projects in ratepayers’ utility bills.
There is a long precedent of publicly-owned, democratically-controlled utility companies in the United States and around the world, and no reason why we should assume dirty, corporate-controlled utility companies relying on energy sources of the 1900s have to be our future.
The fights happening in New Hampshire with utility companies are familiar across the country. From Buffalo, New York to the Bay Area of California, ratepayers are protesting and organizing to hold for-profit utility corporations accountable for squeezing ratepayers to pad their pockets while burning the planet.
In Nevada, working families, ratepayers, and climate activists are fighting to stop NV Energy from nearly tripling its monthly fixed service charge on electric bills from $16.50 to $44.40 while lowering the volumetric charge. This regressive policy means ratepayers who use less energy will be charged more, while heavy energy users, like wealthy corporations, will be charged less—it’s wrong. Nevada is one of the fastest-heating states in the nation, and relies on electricity to keep communities comfortable. With NV Energy’s monopoly power and rising temperatures, Nevadans feel like the odds are stacked against them.
Like many for-profit utility companies, NV Energy is raising rates and burning the planet, instead of capitalizing on the plentiful solar capacity of the Sun Belt state it serves. Nevadans are pushing the Public Utilities Commission to stand up for clean, affordable, reliable energy. With an unprecedented $369 billion in federal investments unlocked in the two-year-old Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) to support the transition to clean energy, utility corporations have no excuse, besides greed, to keep charging ratepayers for dirty, expensive, unreliable power.
While companies have raised electricity prices nearly 31% since 2021, and over of a quarter of Americans struggle to pay their utility bills, activists are fighting to stop rate hikes, stop expansions of dirty power, and pressure lawmakers to stop taking political contributions from the utility corporations they are responsible for regulating.
Local communities are right to hold utility corporations accountable for raising costs on families and stalling action on clean energy. But the underlying structure of monopoly utility companies is not sustainable. When given a once-in-a-generation opportunity to transition to a sustainable energy future through the IRA, they opt to expand gas lines and invest in dirty power. Utility Corporations are failing to reimagine how growing electricity needs could be met with wind, solar, geothermal, energy efficiency, and energy conservation efforts.They have no incentive to lower costs for families, and every incentive to use their massive lobbying power to influence policy and raise rates.
Despite the money we pay each month, for-profit utility companies are not accountable to us, and their monopoly power leaves us with no alternatives. The system is rigged, but it does not have to be this way.
Together, we can change the rules. There is a long precedent of publicly-owned, democratically-controlled utility companies in the United States and around the world, and no reason why we should assume dirty, corporate-controlled utility companies relying on energy sources of the 1900s have to be our future. Now is the time to demand utility justice, to ensure clean, affordable, and reliable energy for all in a way that puts people and the planet first.
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Why Is ‘Climate Change Crusader’ Newsom Waging War on Rooftop Solar?
The answer has more to do with protecting utility company profits the planet or low-income Californians.
Aug 14, 2024
California Gov. Gavin Newsom appears to be taking climate change seriously, at least when he’s in front of a microphone and flashing cameras. His talk then is direct and tough. He repeatedly points out that the planet is in danger and appears ready to act. He’s been called a “climate-change crusader” and a leader of America’s clean energy revolution.
“[California is] meeting the moment head-on as the hots get hotter, the dries get drier, the wets get wetter, simultaneous droughts and rain bombs,” Newsom typically asserted in April 2024 during an event at Central Valley Farm, which is powered by solar panels and batteries. “We have to address these issues with a ferocity that is required of us.”
These are exactly the types of remarks many of us wish we had heard from so many other elected officials addressing the climate disaster this planet’s becoming, the culprits behind it, and how we might begin to fix it. True, Big Oil long covered up internal research about how devastating climate change would be while lying through its teeth as its officials and lobbyists worked fiercely against any kind of global-warming-directed fossil fuel legislation. It’s also correct that the issue must be addressed immediately and forcefully. Yet, whatever Gov. Newsom might say, he’s also played a role in launching a war on rooftop solar power and so kneecapping California just when it was making remarkable strides in that very area of development.
Despite what Gov. Newsom and the California Public Utilities Commission have claimed, electric rates have increased not because of solar power’s massive success but because of old-school capitalist greed.
Consider California’s residential solar program (its “net-metering“), which the governor has all but dismantled. Believe it or not, in December 2022, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) voted 5-0 to slash incentives for residents to place more solar power on their homes. Part of the boilerplate justification offered by the CPUC, Newsom, and the state’s utility companies was that payments to individuals whose houses produce such power were simply too high and badly impacted poor communities that had to deal with those rate increases. They’ve called this alleged problem a “cost-shift” from the wealthy to the poor. It matters not at all that the CPUC, which oversees consumer electric rates, has continually approved rate increases over the years. Solar was now to blame.
It’s true that property owners do place those solar power panels on their roofs. What is not true is that solar only benefits the well-to-do. A 2022 study by Lawrence Berkeley Labs showed that 60% of all solar users in California then were actually low- to middle-income residents. In addition, claiming that residential solar power is significantly responsible for driving the state’s electricity rates up just isn’t true either. Those rates have largely risen because of the eternal desire of California’s utility companies to turn a profit.
Here’s an example of how those rates work and why they’ve gone up. Pacific Gas & Electric Company (PG&E), whose downed power lines have been responsible for an estimated 30 major wildfires in California over the past six overheating years, was forced to pay $13.9 billion in settlement money for the damage done. The company has also been found guilty of 84 felony counts of involuntary manslaughter for deaths in the devastating 2018 Camp Fire in Butte County. In response to those horrific blazes and the damages they inflicted, the company claims it must now spend more than $5.9 billion to bury its aging infrastructure to avoid future wildfires in our tinder-box of a world. Watchdog groups suggest that it’s those investments that are raising electric bills across the state, not newly installed solar power.
In short, large utilities make their money by repairing and expanding the energy grid. Residential solar directly threatens that revenue stream because it doesn’t rely on an ever-expanding network of power stations and transmission lines. The electricity that residential solar power produces typically remains at the community level or, better yet, in the home itself, especially if coupled with local battery storage. Not surprisingly then, by 2018, 20 transmission lines had been canceled in California, mainly because so many homes were already producing solar power on their own rooftops, saving $2.6 billion in total consumer energy costs.
A recent Colorado-based Vibrant Clean Energy analysis confirmed the savings rooftop solar provides to ratepayers. Their report estimated that, by 2050, rooftop panels would save California ratepayers $120 billion. That would also save energy companies from spending far more money on the grid (but, of course, that’s the only way they turn a profit).
“What our model finds is that when you account for the costs associated with distribution grid infrastructure, distributed energy resources can produce a pathway that is lower cost for all ratepayers and emits fewer greenhouse gas emissions,” said Dr. Christopher Clack of Vibrant Clean Energy. “Our study shows this is true even as California looks to electrify other energy sectors like transportation.”
However, such lower costs also mean less profits for utility companies, so they have found an ingenious workaround. They could appease climate concerns while making a bundle of money by building large solar farms in the desert. In the process, nothing about how they generated revenue would change, energy costs would continue to rise, and little would stand in their way, not even a vulnerable forest of Joshua trees.
Solar Panels vs. the Joshua Tree
“Why Razing Joshua Trees for Solar Farms Isn’t Always Crazy,” a troubling Los Angeles Times headline read. Sammy Roth, an intrepid environmental reporter who has written insightfully and cogently on the way humanity is altering the climate, was nonetheless all in on uprooting thousands of Joshua trees in California’s Kern County to make space for that giant solar farm. The “Aratina Solar Project,” a sprawling 2,300-acre installation in the heart of the Mojave Desert, would transfer electricity to wealthy coastal areas, powering more than 180,000 homes. As Roth reported, “There are places to build solar projects besides pristine ecosystems. But there’s no get-out-of-climate-change-free card… Hence the need to accept killing some Joshua trees in the name of saving more Joshua trees. I feel kind of terrible saying that.”
He should feel terrible. Roth believes that tearing up Joshua trees, already in great jeopardy due to our warming climate, is the price that must be paid to save ourselves from ourselves. But is sacrificing wild spaces—and, in this case, also threatening the habitat of the desert tortoise—truly worth it? Is this really the best solution we can come up with in our overheating world? There do appear to be better options, but they would also upend the status quo and put far less money in the pockets of utility shareholders.
Just three big box stores in California cities ripe for solar power would provide more acreage than the 2,300-acre Joshua-tree-destroying solar installation in Kern County.
Here’s how Californians could think outside the box or, in this case, on top of it. A single Walmart roof averages 180,000 square feet. In California, there are 309 Walmarts. That’s 55,620,000 square feet or 1,276 acres of rooftop. Home Depots? There are 247 of them in California and each of their roofs averages 104,000 square feet, totaling 25,668,000 square feet, or around 589 acres. Throw in 318 Target stores, averaging 125,000 square feet, and you have over 39,750,000 square feet or another 912 acres. Add all of those up and you have 2,777 acres of rooftops that could be turned into mini-solar farms.
In other words, just three big box stores in California cities ripe for solar power would provide more acreage than the 2,300-acre Joshua-tree-destroying solar installation in Kern County. And that doesn’t even include all the Costcos (129), Lowes (111), Amazon warehouses (100+), Ikeas (8), strip malls, schools, municipal buildings, parking lots, and so much more that would provide far better options.
You get the picture. The potential for solar in our built environment is indeed enormous. Throw in the more than 5.6 million single-family homes in California with no solar panels, and there’s just so much rooftop real estate that could generate electricity without wrecking entire ecosystems already facing a frighteningly hot future.
In 2014, it was estimated that solar power from California homes produced 2.2 gigawatts of energy. Ten years later, that potential is so much greater. As of summer 2024, the state has 1.9 million residential rooftop solar installations capable of churning out 16.7 gigawatts of power. It’s estimated that 1 gigawatt can conservatively power 750,000 homes. This means that the solar generation now installed on California’s roofs could theoretically, if stored, power 12,525,000 homes in a state with only 7.5 million of them. Already, in 2022, it’s believed that the state wasted nearly 2.3 million megawatt-hours worth of solar-produced electricity.
And mind you, this isn’t just back-of-the-napkin math. A 2021 geospatial analysis of rooftop solar conducted by researchers at Ireland’s University of Cork and published in Nature confirmed what many experts have long believed: that the U.S. has enough usable rooftop space to supply the entire country’s energy demands and, with proper community-based storage, would be all we would need to fulfill our energy production demands—and then some! If properly deployed, the U.S. could produce 4.2 petawatt-hours per year of rooftop solar electricity, more than the country consumes today. (A petawatt-hour is a unit of energy equal to one trillion kilowatt-hours.) The report also noted that there are enough rooftops worldwide to potentially fully feed the world’s energy appetite.
If residential solar has succeeded exceptionally well and has so much possibility, why are we intent on destroying desert ecology with massive, industrial-scale solar farms? The answer in Gavin Newsom’s California has much more to do with politics and corporate avarice than with mitigating climate change.
Profit-Driven Utilities
Despite what Gov. Newsom and the California Public Utilities Commission have claimed, electric rates have increased not because of solar power’s massive success but because of old-school capitalist greed.
“Rooftop solar has value in avoiding costs that utilities would have to pay to deliver that same kilowatt-hour of energy, such as investments in transmission lines and other grid infrastructure,” reports the solar-advocacy group, Solar Rights Alliance. “Rooftop solar also reduces the public health costs of fossil fuel power plants and the costs to ratepayers of utility-caused wildfires and power shut-offs. Rooftop solar also provides quantifiable benefits through local economic development and jobs. It preserves land that would otherwise be used for large-scale solar development. When paired with batteries, rooftop solar helps build community resilience.”
Nonetheless, blaming rooftop solar for California’s increased electricity rates has been a painfully effective argument. So, here’s a question to consider: Why does it seem like Newsom is working on behalf of the utilities to limit small-scale rooftop solar? Could it be related to the $10 million Pacific Gas & Electric donated to his campaigns since he first ran for office in San Francisco in the late 1990s? Or could it be because key members of his cabinet are tight with PG&E executives? (Dana Williamson, his current chief of staff, was a former director of public affairs at PG&E.)
Growth means more money for California’s utilities, so they’ve gone all in on expansive and destructive solar farms.
Then, consider the potential conflict of interest when the law firm O’Melveny & Myers, which previously worked for PG&E, was tasked by Newsom with drafting wildfire legislation to save the company from bankruptcy. PG&E would, in fact, end up hammering out a deal with CPUC to pass on the costs of the bailout, a staggering $11 billion, to ratepayers over a 30-year period.
It all worked out well for the company. In 2023, PG&E, which serves 16 million people, raked in $2.2 billion in profits, nearly a 25% jump from 2022.
“The coziness between Gavin Newsom and [PG&E] is unlike anything we’ve seen in California politics… Their motive is profit, which is driven by Wall Street,” says Bernadette Del Chiaro, executive director of California Solar & Storage Association, who has over a decade of experience monitoring the industry. “[The utility companies] have to keep posting record profits, quarter after quarter. It’s a perversity that nobody is really thinking about.”
It’s pretty simple really. Growth means more money for California’s utilities, so they’ve gone all in on expansive and destructive solar farms. Ultimately, this means higher bills for consumers to cover the costs of a grid they are forced to rely on as home solar systems become increasingly expensive.
(More) Bad News for the Climate
Newsom’s war on rooftop solar has had another detrimental impact: It’s threatened the state’s clean energy goals. And the governor hasn’t said a word about that. The California Energy Commission estimates that, to meet its climate benchmarks, the state must add 20,000 megawatts of rooftop solar electricity by 2030. At this pace, they’ll be lucky to install 10,000 megawatts. With such a precipitous decline in home solar installations, the 20,000 megawatts goal will never be reached by that year, even when you include all large-scale solar developments now in the works.
The Coalition for Community Solar Access estimates that 81% of solar companies in the state fear they’ll have to close up shop. Bad news for the solar industry also means bad news not just for California, the nation’s leader in solar energy production, but for the climate more generally.
The slow death of new residential solar installations is likely to mean that most of California’s electricity will continue to be made by burning natural gas and sending more fossil fuel emissions into the atmosphere.
A rapid decline in new solar installations also means massive job losses, possibly 22% of the state’s solar gigs, or up to 17,000 workers. In addition to such bleak projections, disincentivizing rooftop solar will also hurt the Californians most impacted by warming temperatures and in need of relief—those who can’t afford to live along the state’s more temperate coast.
“Rooftop solar is not just the wealthy homeowners anymore,” State Senator Josh Becker, a San Mateo Democrat, recently toldCalMatters. “Central Valley people are suffering from extreme heat. The industry has been making great strides in low-income communities. This [utilities commission decision] makes it harder.”
The slow death of new residential solar installations is likely to mean that most of California’s electricity will continue to be made by burning natural gas and sending more fossil fuel emissions into the atmosphere. All of this may also be a sign that rooftop solar across the country is in peril. Utility companies and those hoping to gut residential solar programs in Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Nevada, and North Carolina are already humming Newsom’s “cost-shift” tune.
“They [the big utilities] know it’s a pivotal time,” Bernadette Del Chiaro tells me, with a sense of urgency and deep concern for what lies ahead. “They are fighting really hard, and they are fighting hardest in California because where California goes, there goes the nation.”
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Greedy Utilities Pass Climate Costs on to Customers: Here’s How to Stop Them
Transitioning 100% away from fossil fuels to renewables is paramount to making energy affordable and accessible for all.
Jul 19, 2024
In the midst of hot, humid Florida summers, air conditioning is a necessity. But due to skyrocketing electricity bills, it’s out of reach for many.
Tampa Electric Company (TECO) customers paid some of the highest residential electricity bills in the country last year. Now, the utility is asking for another rate hike that would raise families’ bills by an additional more than $200 a year.
This problem extends far beyond the Sunshine State. And one major source of these growing costs? The climate crisis.
To ensure everyone has access to essential power, we need to tackle climate change and swiftly transition off of fossil fuels.
Rising temperatures and climate-fueled disasters are making electricity more expensive than ever. Across Florida and nationwide, cities are enduring record-breaking heat and are preparing for an unprecedented hurricane season. This summer, electric bills may cost families an average of $719—a nearly 8% increase from last year and the highest in 10 years.
These costs are forcing people to choose between unaffordable power and other necessities, like food and medicine. “Aside from unreasonable rate hikes, my May usage was up 10% from last year because of rising heat,” says David Coleman, a retiree living in Hillsborough County, Florida. “I pay that bill out of my United Healthcare healthy food benefit. Less for food; more for energy.”
Under the status quo, this problem will only get worse, as climate disasters balloon the costs of repairs and adaptation. To ensure everyone has access to essential power, we need to tackle climate change and swiftly transition off of fossil fuels
Outages and Adaptation Costs Will Make Electricity Inaccessible
Much of the nation’s grid is already old and declining in reliability. Climate change will make matters worse. According to one study, the annual economic impacts of climate change on the grid could reach $24 billion in 2090—and that’s not even accounting for floods, hurricanes, or ice storms. Much of these costs could be passed onto us through rate hikes.
In addition to adaptation costs, extreme weather is causing more service outages that cut off families’ access to electricity. And by mid-century, service outages could cost customers $1.5 to $3.4 trillion.
Moreover, the same extreme weather that causes these outages makes electricity needs even more dire—like heatwaves, for instance. The consequences of this have been dangerous, even fatal. In Louisiana, power outages following Hurricane Ida contributed to at least 21 heat-related deaths.
Climate Disasters Wreak Havoc on Our Power Infrastructure
Disasters like flooding, winter storms, and hurricanes will also exacerbate these problems. They can damage electricity infrastructure, causing more service outages and raising costs as utilities scramble to adapt and repair.
For example, climate change is worsening the intensity of winter storms, which are damaging power infrastructure more and more. In 2020, Maine saw 12 weather-related service outages—though it had never had more than five per year up to 2018.
To the South, storms are exacting huge costs in adaptations to power infrastructure. Following destructive hurricanes, Florida Power & Light spent $3 billion on storm hardening from 2006 to 2017. Considering average household electricity use in the state, Florida Power & Light’s storm hardening efforts may cost customers an additional $140 in 2025.
Fossil-fueled energy is dangerous and unsustainable. It not only contributes to the climate crisis—it is less resilient to climate disasters.
Just this month, Hurricane Beryl led to power outages for almost 3 million Texans. A week later, as the heat index soared toward triple digits, more than 200,000 homes and businesses in the Houston area still lacked power. Beryl arrived earlier in the year than any Category 5 hurricane on record, fueled by abnormally warm waters in the Atlantic Ocean.
Meanwhile, in the West, wildfires threaten infrastructure like above-ground transmission lines, causing insurance rates to soar. In Washington, insurance companies are charging some utilities million-dollar surcharges for wildfire risks. And utilities can pass these new costs directly onto customers.
Energy Companies Are Skimming Profits From Rate Hikes
We need more climate adaptation for our country’s power infrastructure. But the costs shouldn’t burden families that already must choose between electricity and other essentials—nor should they serve as cover for boosting utility profits.
Yet, that’s exactly what’s happening in many utilities across the country, including Florida’s TECO.
“With rate increases, energy bills have gone up to the benefit of those shareholders who invest in TECO’s Canadian mother company, Emera,” said Tampa-based Sierra Club organizer Walter L. Smith II. “Meanwhile, people in underserved frontline communities continue to suffer because of TECO’s bad practices that contribute to public health issues and economic strife. This devastation cannot go on.”
In Louisiana, electric company Entergy raised rates by $8 a month after destructive hurricanes caused billions of dollars in damages in 2020 and 2021. At the same time, it was doling out $1.5 billion in dividends to shareholders and gave its CEO a $4 million raise.
Last year, in California, the state Public Utilities Commission approved billions for system hardening for Pacific Gas & Electric and rate hikes to cover it. Now, Pacific is the most expensive power provider in the state, and monthly bills in 2024 may be as much as $50 higher than they were last year. At the same time, the company saw $2.2 billion in profits in 2023 and expects to rack up even more in 2024.
We Need Renewables for Reliable, Affordable Power
Fossil-fueled energy is dangerous and unsustainable. It not only contributes to the climate crisis—it is less resilient to climate disasters.
For example, in 2021, a winter freeze in Texas left 10 million people without electricity. Gas-powered systems neared collapse, partly because they couldn’t produce energy in the cold. During the crisis, all fuel sources underperformed—except solar.
Besides cutting off essential heat during winter storms, the crisis also slammed Texans in their wallets. The state’s Public Utilities Commission ordered maximum electricity prices of $9,000/MWh, leaving residents with jaw-dropping bills.
Without good policy, the costs of these overhauls will fall unfairly on families, making essential electricity increasingly out of reach.
Transitioning 100% away from fossil fuels to renewables is paramount to making energy affordable and accessible for all. It will keep the grid reliable and cut emissions, reducing the costs of climate change. One study found that adaptation and lowering emissions could each halve the estimated economic impacts on our power system by 2090. Fighting climate change and lowering energy bills go hand in hand.
“Any further investment into fossil fuels and gas for energy is a waste of money and a dire waste of time,” says Calista Snider, a Tampa resident, biologist, and member of the Hillsborough Affordable Energy Coalition. “New investments and infrastructure for fossil fuel energy will not only cost us our health and our planet; they have been proven to cost us more financially, as well.”
Nevertheless, corporations are still pouring resources into fossil fuels. TECO, for instance, is building a gas pipeline and converting a power station to run on gas.
That’s because building fossil power is much better for companies’ bottom lines than renewables, and that’s because, under the current system, they can recover more profits the more they spend on infrastructure. Under the status quo, utilities are disincentivized from making climate-saving changes, like energy efficiency and investing in renewables.
We’re Fighting for Affordable, Clean Energy
Nationwide, it’s clear that we need to overhaul our energy systems to reduce emissions and adapt to climate change. The price of inaction is high and only climbing as the climate crisis intensifies.
But without good policy, the costs of these overhauls will fall unfairly on families, making essential electricity increasingly out of reach. Meanwhile, power companies will continue profiting off rate hikes and expanding expensive, polluting infrastructure.
We can’t let this happen. In Florida, Food & Water Watch is working with the Hillsborough Affordable Energy Coalition and the statewide Clean Energy for All table. Together, we’re fighting to stop rate hikes and pass policy that makes utility companies do right by their customers, not their shareholders. That includes stopping fossil fuel expansion and prioritizing renewables and energy efficiency.
Without action like this across the country, the price of keeping the lights on will continue to rise. But we can change course and ensure clean, affordable energy for everyone.
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