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California utility companies propose charging customers based on how much money they make
https://abc7.com/utility-bills-income-california/13126671/ ^ | abc7.com

Posted on 04/15/2023 4:54:45 PM PDT by ameribbean expat

Three major utility companies in California are looking to restructure customer billing, and part of that means customers could be charged based on how much money they make.

Southern California Edison, Pacific Gas & Electric and San Diego Gas & Electric filed a joint proposal this week for a flat-rate charge based on income.

The plan would break monthly bills in two parts: The fixed-income rate, plus a reduced usage charge based on consumption.

Under the proposal, it would cost as little as $15 a month for low-income households and up to $85 more per month for households making more than $180,000 a year.

(Excerpt) Read more at abc7.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; News/Current Events; US: California
KEYWORDS: california; communist; communistic; energy; power
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1 posted on 04/15/2023 4:54:45 PM PDT by ameribbean expat
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To: ameribbean expat

“From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs”
— Karl Marx


2 posted on 04/15/2023 4:56:11 PM PDT by ClearCase_guy (“You want it one way, but it's the other way”)
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To: ameribbean expat

“California utility companies propose charging customers based on how much money they make”

Colleges already do it (under the guise of ‘financial aid’), so why not everyone else!!!


3 posted on 04/15/2023 4:56:32 PM PDT by BobL
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To: ameribbean expat

How can this be legal? It’s not like you can just hop on over to a different utility supplier.


4 posted on 04/15/2023 4:59:16 PM PDT by FoxInSocks ("Hope is not a course of action." — M. O'Neal, USMC)
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To: ameribbean expat

Well, the greens in CA are already fighting to keep the deadline in place for the last nuclear power plant in CA to be shut down, so it doesn’t matter what the utility companies in CA propose. It’s kind of like giving the poor people on the Titanic bigger dinners than the rich folks.


5 posted on 04/15/2023 4:59:56 PM PDT by Extremely Extreme Extremist
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To: ameribbean expat

Get a Hollywood accountant to determine how much money you make and you’ll get free electricity for life.


6 posted on 04/15/2023 5:01:12 PM PDT by mikey_hates_everything
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To: ameribbean expat

I noticed their rates are lower than mine


7 posted on 04/15/2023 5:02:16 PM PDT by roving (👌⚓)
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To: BobL

> Colleges already do it (under the guise of ‘financial aid’), so why not everyone else!!! <

Yep. The utility companies just have to sell it as a discount based on income.
It’s not that some folks are paying more. It’s that some folks are paying less.

Same difference. But it will fool enough people.


8 posted on 04/15/2023 5:05:50 PM PDT by Leaning Right (The steal is real.)
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To: ameribbean expat

Karl would be proud


9 posted on 04/15/2023 5:06:57 PM PDT by Dr. Zzyzx
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To: All

more social workers will need to be hired to help homeless and disadvantaged people in california navigate the new pricing structures?


10 posted on 04/15/2023 5:08:51 PM PDT by SteveH
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To: ameribbean expat

Wealth redistribution. A Communist policy.


11 posted on 04/15/2023 5:11:45 PM PDT by Openurmind (The ultimate test of a moral society is the kind of world it leaves to its children. ~ D. Bonhoeffer)
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To: All

it is imho, in theory at least, a privacy violation for a company or corporation to have access to one’s income level. it that were allowed, it seems to me as if it would be the beginning of a (marxist) form of social credit.


12 posted on 04/15/2023 5:13:04 PM PDT by SteveH
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To: Leaning Right

“Yep. The utility companies just have to sell it as a discount based on income.”

The next thing: utility rates based on race.

Free energy for those that, some say, are entitled to reparations based on commercial transactions which occurred on the Dark Continent circa 1619.

Or maybe the year 1210. I’m not sure of the exact date; just that it is relevant to 2023.


13 posted on 04/15/2023 5:17:12 PM PDT by jeffersondem
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To: SteveH

Hell — most utilities already have their customer’s SSN. It’s under the guise of credit credentials. Calif law can now allow utilities to poll the IRS with that SSN.


14 posted on 04/15/2023 5:17:59 PM PDT by George from New England
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To: George from New England

> Hell — most utilities already have their customer’s SSN. It’s under the guise of credit credentials. Calif law can now allow utilities to poll the IRS with that SSN.

I try to be somewhat circumspect with that. Usually if I inquire carefully and persistently, the vendor representative backs down. In some cases, they are OK with having the last 4 digits of the SSAN.

In any case, I am not certain that anyone (even a company/corporation/utility) can just walk up to the IRS with someone’s SSAN and request that person’s income. Maybe I am wrong(?) (would not be the first time lol).


15 posted on 04/15/2023 5:22:51 PM PDT by SteveH
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To: SteveH

“In any case, I am not certain that anyone (even a company/corporation/utility) can just walk up to the IRS with someone’s SSN and request that person’s income. “

What keeps California from writing that into a new law?


16 posted on 04/15/2023 5:25:20 PM PDT by George from New England
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To: ameribbean expat

SEEMS to me that higher income persons already pay more-—but they USE more & they can afford every high end gadget there is.

Will they also say restaurants can charge more to fat people???

This is invasive on it’s face-—requiring your income to become part of the utility records.

YEARS AGO-—I lived in So Calif. About late 70’s———

Drought—City Council passed a law saying that everyone MUST cut their water usage by 15%....(Year to year basis) IF not-—your first offense would get you a nastygram. Further offences would cost you $$$$$.

I got a bill that said I had used too much water. I was already being really careful.

I called DWP & asked them why I was being charged-—

I told them I had definitely cut my usage & I could prove it.

In talking to NICE lady at DWP, she asked how I knew I had used less.......

I told her—”BECAUSE I HAVE MY UTILITY BILLS FROM LAST YEAR..and I have used less —more than 15 % less”....Silence.

Then she says: “YOU DO???????”

I say “YES-—I HAVE BILLS BACK TO WHEN I BOUGHT THE HOUSE IN 1966”.....More silence.

Then I ask her “How come the DWP doesn’t already KNOW THAT??? THEY BILLED ME LAST YEAR”.......

She finally admits that the DWP doesn’t keep records more than 3 months or so—except when the bills are not being paid. TOO MUCH DATA TO HOLD ONTO.

I also had installed a sprinkler system & actually was using less water.

She notes my bill & I never got any more notices.

This kind of INVASIVE INCOME INFO BEING REQUIRED WILL BACKFIRE.


17 posted on 04/15/2023 5:25:37 PM PDT by ridesthemiles
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To: George from New England

IF the IRS gives out that information-—the COURTS will be full of cases.


18 posted on 04/15/2023 5:26:56 PM PDT by ridesthemiles
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To: Openurmind

Who is John Galt?


19 posted on 04/15/2023 5:41:08 PM PDT by Chad C. Mulligan
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To: Chad C. Mulligan

It is about to that point. We are fully ready to live without the grid at any time. This thing is about to crack wide open.


20 posted on 04/15/2023 5:46:23 PM PDT by Openurmind (The ultimate test of a moral society is the kind of world it leaves to its children. ~ D. Bonhoeffer)
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