{"id":9186,"date":"2023-02-10T11:24:19","date_gmt":"2023-02-10T18:24:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sandiegonewsdesk.com\/?p=9186"},"modified":"2023-02-10T11:25:03","modified_gmt":"2023-02-10T18:25:03","slug":"new-study-exposes-4-5-billion-in-hidden-state-taxes-on-california-utility-bills-climate-mandates-add-even-more-costs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sandiegonewsdesk.com\/?p=9186","title":{"rendered":"New Study Exposes $4.5 Billion in \u201cHidden State Taxes\u201d on California Utility Bills \u2013 Climate Mandates Add Even More Costs"},"content":{"rendered":"

The original story can be read here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

California politicians are trying to shift the blame for high electricity and gas rates to private utilities, but a new report from the Transparency Foundation reveals \u201chidden state taxes\u201d and state climate change mandates are causing Californians to pay 67.1% more for electricity and 30.1% more for natural gas than national average<\/h4>\n
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Californians are getting crushed by electric and gas utility rate hikes \u2014 with some residents seeing bills that DOUBLED or TRIPLED during the month of January 2023 alone. Experts warn that many residents may be unable to pay their utility bills. One frustrated resident summed up rising frustration by saying \u201cthe choice is to eat or to heat.\u201d<\/p>\n

But while California politicians are trying to shift the blame to utility company profits, an independent analysis of utility rates in California conducted by the non-partisan Transparency Foundation reveals that the state politicians are actually to blame.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe public has a right to know that they are being forced to pay higher utility rates than they should be paying \u2013 and policymakers need to take immediate action to provide relief,\u201d says Carl DeMaio, Chairman of the Transparency Foundation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe found over $4.5 billion in hidden state taxes added by Sacramento politicians to the electricity and gas rates imposed on California residents \u2013 and none of these taxes are disclosed on the bills sent to residents,\u201d adds DeMaio.<\/p>\n

The study provides a complete itemized list of these hidden taxes contained within the rate structure of each of the state\u2019s largest utilities \u2013 charging Californians fees for a variety of dubious government programs ranging from a fund to cover unpaid utility bills to some residents, to give financial aid for \u201cdisadvantaged communities,\u201d to provides free windows and appliances to others, etc.<\/p>\n

The $4.5 billion in government program charges uncovered by the study amounts to a combined hidden state tax rate of over 10% on each utility bill each month!<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s not all the study discovered state politicians are doing to spike your utility rates.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn top of the hidden state taxes found within the utility rates, California\u2019s aggressive climate change mandates have both increased the commodity prices of electricity and natural gas as well as been the primary contributor to price spikes during supply disruptions that led to the doubling and tripling of bills,\u201d DeMaio notes.<\/p>\n

In fact, the study found that Californians are forced to pay\u00a0electricity rates that are 67.1% higher<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0than the national average and\u00a0natural gas rates that are 30.1% higher<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0than the national average.<\/p>\n

While some of these costs could be market-driven, the Transparency Foundation concludes that California state government hidden taxes and mandates are resulting in an\u00a0increased cost to consumers by at least one-third of their bill \u2013 if not closer to half of their bill<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

DeMaio says the substantial costs added by state politicians means those state politicians can easily lower the rates back down \u2013 but only if they wanted to.<\/p>\n

Sensing the public was turning on them, state politicians recently moved up the issuance of small \u201ccredits\u201d of $40 and $63 on utility bills for the next two months. But DeMaio says these credits are merely crumbs \u2013 and are actually coming from ratepayers themselves through a costly \u201cCap and Trade\u201d tax imposed on the cost of their electricity and natural gas.<\/p>\n

Rejecting the small credits as \u201ccompletely inadequate relief,\u201d DeMaio is instead proposing a plan to cut electric and gas utility rates called the \u201c2500-25-5 plan.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause state politicians have deceptively imposed taxes on utility bills for years, it is only fair that every Californian receive an immediate refund of $2500 from the state,\u201d DeMaio says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose illegal taxes should also be removed immediately \u2013 along with lifting any climate change mandate that increases the cost of electricity or gas \u2013 and that will allow an immediate cut of 25% in the utility rates,\u201d DeMaio notes.<\/p>\n

DeMaio says that by repealing the taxes and mandates California should commit to not raise rates for 5 years.<\/p>\n

To assist state leaders in hitting these rate reduction targets, DeMaio says the Transparency Foundation study identified that 71.6-84.5% of electric utility costs and 60.4-78.7% of gas utility costs are unnecessarily increased by costly state mandates and regulations.<\/p>\n

In fact, the Transparency Foundation study found a disclosure made by Pacific Gas & Electric in its 2023 rate case filing with the state where the utility openly admits the rate increases they seek are directly driven by\u00a0\u201cthe impact of the State\u2019s decarbonization strategy.<\/em><\/strong>\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are many ways state politicians can undo the damage they\u2019ve done \u2013 but they have to act quickly,\u201d DeMaio says.<\/p>\n

\u201cI doubt they will act, however, without a substantial revolt by the public \u2013 and that will take a massive public education effort,\u201d DeMaio concedes.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why DeMaio blasted California media outlets for \u201cpoor and outright dishonest coverage of what is really causing high utility rates.<\/p>\n

A review of coverage in California\u2019s five largest newspapers between January 28 and February 6 found repeated inclusion of quotations from politicians blaming utility profit margins, but absolutely no mention of the fact that the politicians set the utility rate and approve the rate of profits for the utilities through their appointees on the California Public Utilities Commission.<\/p>\n

Moreover, the Transparency Foundation examined the audited financial statements for the three main California utility companies in 2021 and found their profit margins (SDG&E 14.8%, SoCal Edison 6.2%, PG&E 0.67%) were actually far below the 17.1% national average profit margin for utilities in other states.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe same politicians that sneak hidden state taxes into your utility rates without disclosing them on your bills are now trying to pretend like the utilities set the rates when, in fact, the politicians do,\u201d DeMaio notes.<\/p>\n

DeMaio warns that additional costly state climate change mandates are about to be adopted that will spike electricity and gas rates even higher \u2013 including a proposal to ban gas appliances in all homes and buildings.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is clear that California politicians are trying to force residents to finance the high costs of California\u2019s early implementation of the controversial Green New Deal transition \u2013 and rates will likely quadruple within the next decade if this misguided transition continues,\u201d DeMaio concludes.<\/p>\n

The original story can be read here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n

Image Credit: Canva<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The original story can be read here. California politicians are trying to shift the blame for high electricity and gas rates to private utilities, but a new report from the Transparency Foundation reveals \u201chidden state taxes\u201d and state climate change mandates are causing Californians to pay 67.1% more for electricity and 30.1% more for natural…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":9187,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9186","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-taxes"],"yoast_head":"\nNew Study Exposes $4.5 Billion in \u201cHidden State Taxes\u201d on California Utility Bills \u2013 Climate Mandates Add Even More Costs - San Diego News Desk<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sandiegonewsdesk.com\/?p=9186\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"New Study Exposes $4.5 Billion in \u201cHidden State Taxes\u201d on California Utility Bills \u2013 Climate Mandates Add Even More Costs - San Diego News Desk\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The original story can be read here. California politicians are trying to shift the blame for high electricity and gas rates to private utilities, but a new report from the Transparency Foundation reveals \u201chidden state taxes\u201d and state climate change mandates are causing Californians to pay 67.1% more for electricity and 30.1% more for natural...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sandiegonewsdesk.com\/?p=9186\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"San Diego News Desk\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-02-10T18:24:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-02-10T18:25:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/sandiegonewsdesk.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Taxes.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sandiegonewsdesk.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"San Diego News Desk\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sandiegonewsdesk.com\/\",\"sameAs\":[],\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sandiegonewsdesk.com\/#logo\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sandiegonewsdesk.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Logo-SanDiegoNewsDesk-Article.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/sandiegonewsdesk.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Logo-SanDiegoNewsDesk-Article.png\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":720,\"caption\":\"San Diego News Desk\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sandiegonewsdesk.com\/#logo\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sandiegonewsdesk.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sandiegonewsdesk.com\/\",\"name\":\"San Diego News Desk\",\"description\":\"Your Source for News in San Diego\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sandiegonewsdesk.com\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":\"https:\/\/sandiegonewsdesk.com\/?s={search_term_string}\",\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sandiegonewsdesk.com\/?p=9186#primaryimage\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sandiegonewsdesk.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Taxes.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/sandiegonewsdesk.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Taxes.png\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":720},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sandiegonewsdesk.com\/?p=9186#webpage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sandiegonewsdesk.com\/?p=9186\",\"name\":\"New Study Exposes $4.5 Billion in \\u201cHidden State Taxes\\u201d on California Utility Bills \\u2013 Climate Mandates Add Even More Costs - 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