Richer people pay more: California to set electricity bills based on people’s income; The more you make, the higher your electricity rates

The Guardian ^ | 06/06/2023 | Rose Horowitch

[SeekAndFind]

California will soon become the first state to determine residents’ electricity fees based on their income as part of a new effort to spur households toward full electrification and bring down the state’s soaring electricity costs for low-income Californians.

Electricity bills are made up of fixed costs as well as fees that vary based on the amount of electricity residents use. Last year, the state passed a law giving the California public utilities commission a 1 July 2024 deadline to determine a fixed charge for household electric bills based on people’s income.

The new income-based electricity bills could hit residents’ mailboxes as soon as 2025. Based on proposals currently under consideration, residents who make more than $180,000 a year could pay about $500 more annually on their electricity bills, while Californians who make less than $28,000 annually could save up to $300 a year. The law is part of the state’s answer of how to equitably transition away from carbon as an energy source.

But state officials are already facing backlash from higher-income residents who don’t want to see their bills increase. The proposals have so far received more than 250 public comments, with a large number opposing the law.

“Why should I pay for someone else’s bill when I paid thousands for solar?” one commenter wrote.

California currently has some of the highest electricity costs of any state, according to a report that suggested the income-based model. California’s electricity prices range from one and a half times to double the national average.

[dblshot]

taxation without representation!

[xp38]

The incentive to go off grid gets greater and greater.

[EvilCapitalist]

Yeah, that won’t make rich people flee the state. /sarc

[The Iceman Cometh]

“Why should I pay for someone else’s bill when I paid thousands for solar?” one commenter wrote.

I think I found the problem

[SeekAndFind]

AND HERE, MY FELLOW FREEPERS, IS THE REASON WHY 👇👇👇

According to Severin Borenstein, one of the report’s co-authors and a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, electricity prices in the state are so high because utility companies are also paying for damages from wildfires and subsidies for rooftop solar panels, among other costs. They make up for these expenditures by raising the price for electricity use.

Pacific Gas & Electric, Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric, the state’s three largest utilities, said in a joint filing that the income-based charge was “urgently needed to support achievement of the state’s decarbonization goals”.

[rdcbn1]

Why should I pay for someone else’s bill when I paid thousands for solar?” one commenter wrote.

---

Because you voted for the politicians who wrote the laws, moron. And you will vote for them again the the next election because you are a moron. I left cali crazy land decades ago because of the morons who were messing the place up. Have zero sympathy, they deserve what they get.

[Jeff Chandler]

Enjoy the suck, suckers!

[frank ballenger]

Marx and Lenin in Hell: “Getting so excited. Our dreams of conquest are coming true without us. If it weren’t so hot down here I’d be even happier.”

[Timber Rattler]

Unconstitutional...this flies in the face of the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. Lawsuits to follow.

[Mr. N. Wolfe]

“The more you make, the higher your electricity rates...”

Sounds like taxation and the Internal Revenue System (IRS).

[No name given]

My thoughts exactly!

[No name given]

Which is one of the reasons for the American Revolution.

[FlingWingFlyer]

This is the crap the fascist left comes up with when they are doing way too many drugs. If you bust your ass working all day, you’re gonna pay more for electricity than those who sit on their asses all day watch “Da View” and poking their cell phone. There isn’t enough money in the world to make me move to the communist crap hole of Cauliphonya.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Plank #2 of the Communist Manifesto - A highly graduated income tax. Highly graduated price is the same thing.

---

The Ten Planks of Karl Marx's Communist Manifesto
(and How Statists Implement Them)

1. Abolition of private property rights (via property taxes, restrictive zoning laws, "fair housing" edicts, environmental and "wetlands" regulations, UN Agenda 21, UN Agenda 2030, etc.)
2. Institution of a heavily graduated income tax (by calling it "taxing the rich")
3. Abolition of all rights of inheritance (through a confiscatory estate tax making the government your primary heir)
4. Confiscation of the property of enemies of the state (through a social credit system that can cancel all your financial accounts)
5. Centralization of credit into the hands of the state (Federal Reserve, Federal Trade Commission, TARP, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, federal takeover of student loans, etc.)
6. Centralization of the means of communication and transportation into the hands of the state (FCC, DOT, FEMA, NTSB, FAA, etc.).
7. Consolidation and subjugation of all major industries to central government control (FDA, EPA, OSHA, ICC, HUD, NLRB, EEOC, DOE, TSA etc
8. Mandatory labor union membership ("card check" to bypass employee consent, automatic withholding of union dues, forced unionization of health care workers, teachers, police, firefighters, etc.)
9. Equitable redistribution of all wealth (TANF, SSI, EITC, SNAP, Community Reinvestment Act, etc.)
10. "Free" public education (and food, housing, health care, cell phones, Internet access, etc.)

[Churchillspirit]

Ridiculous!!

[FlingWingFlyer]

When I was a kid, this kind of liberal crap was called thievery. Somebody needs their asses kicked and thrown in jail. This friggin’ idea is so unAmerican. The best way to make this right is by making all politicians pay 45% of their income for electricity.

[Liaison]

They state has imposed so much regulatory crap on them that they have to find suckers the pass on the cost to so the shareholders don’t revolt and the state does not mind “killing the cow” that pays the bills.

[Jacquerie]

No, it doesn’t.

[FlingWingFlyer]

I wonder if the Founding Fathers knew what the hell they were doing when they decided to give EVERYONE the right to vote no matter how retarded they are.