The California Public Utilities Commission voted Thursday to approve a change to how some power companies bill customers.
Under the new plan, Southern California Edison customers will be charged a new $24 monthly fee. For low-income customers, the fee will be reduced to $6 or $12 per month.
The proposed decision says that the price per unit of electricity “will be lower for all customers” under the new billing structure. But while customers who use a lot of electricity will see savings, those who use less power could see their bills go up.
Jamie Court, president of Consumer Watchdog, disagrees with the idea of decoupling power bills from electricity usage.
“We’re telling people that they're gonna pay a fixed fee regardless of whether they're using more or less energy, so it really doesn't make sense,” he said.
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Opponents say the change discourages energy conservation. Republicans in the State Senate wrote a letter discouraging the proposal, saying “We must do more to rein in the ever-growing cost of living in our state, not find new ways to add to it.”
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