Speak Out on PGE’s Rate Increase by August 27th

1.Consumers cannot afford another increase in rates. Our utility bills are already verging on unaffordable. Attempting to raise rates again would put even further strain on consumers.

2.Please provide an explainer article on how the proposed increases are
For higher profit margins
Make it easier to raise prices every winter
Shift financial risk to customers

3.Why do customers keep paying higher prices for unreliable service? We can barely afford to pay our bills and the CEO took home $6.8 million in 2023. She certainly doesn't have any trouble paying her utility bill even with a rate increase, but the rest of us haven't seen meaningful raises in years while we keep getting eviscerated by manufactured inflation for everyday necessities. These increases are nothing but pure greed as evidenced by her salary -- a perfect example of income inequality as the ratio is 55:1 for her pay to the median employee pay at PG&E. The line workers certainly have a much more skilled, hazardous, and essential job for a fraction of the pay. If PG&E needs money, the C-suite and other executives need to take a pay cut and learn to make a budget. Isn't that what they tell us regular folks to do? It should be very easy for them with so much surplus in their salaries to work with.

4.The cost of every single thing required to survive has risen significantly in only a couple of years. It is absurd. Salaries have stagnated or fallen. What little money we are able to get working our assess off has less and less purchasing power every single day. More and more people are being pushed down into poverty and homelessness.

People who live in Portland have no choice but to rely on PGE for electricity. PGE household bills have already increased by 30% since December 2022. They want to raise prices even more!?

I am already (and have always been) using as little electricity as possible. What are my options t0 lower my bill, which has skyrocketed? Suffer heat stroke in the summer by turning off my pathetic a/c window unit that keeps my small apartment barely cooled down below 80 degrees?

While battery storage is the talking point PGE uses, the case is much more of a wish list by management:

Higher profit margins

Making it easier to raise prices every winter

Shifting financial risk to customers

Stop making everyday people carry even more of the burden of cost than they already are struggling under.

5.We are sick of this and collectively we will not continue to pay for PGEs selfish decision making. We will organize and dismantle the higher ups that run PGE and advise the CEO to take a large pay cut to reinvest back into our collective use of energy. Enough is enough

6.This is not sustainable. Our paycheck does not increase when our bills do. I cannot demand an 18% raise from my boss in January and 8 months later ask for an additional 10%. Make it make sense.

7.The CEO took home 6.8 million? Are you kidding me? Wow. Hey how about she take a 10.9% pay cut to raise the rates!!! This is absolutely insane. Corporate greed has gotten out of control. PGE and other utilities need to be public and out of the hands of corporations. PGE has a monopoly as they are the only one that we need electric from. We are at their Beck and call. But with enough voices, we speak out against this rate increase proposal. We can't take it anymore. The customers you serve and care about are struggling, hard. There will be more disconnections. Are you ready for that? What does that say about you pge? We need you to stop with the rate increase.

Full stop!

8.As a retired senior citizen on a fixed income, I cannot afford another price increase. My yearly income is increased 2-3% on social security, if deemed necessary. It appears that the utilities are trying to price people out of their homes with these ever-increasing rate hikes. PGE is now asking for another 11% increase, which will make a 44% increase in the last couple of years! I still use the same amount of wattage per month that I did 15 years ago, at double the cost. These rate increases are unsustainable for the average homeowner.