By Karen Gaudette Associated
Press
SAN FRANCISCO
–– The California Public Utilities Commission unanimously
approved electricity rate increases of up to 46 percent Tuesday
to try to head off blackouts this summer and keep the state's
two biggest utilities from going under.
The increases
are the largest in California history.
Amid the jeers
of protesters yelling "Hell, no, we won't pay!" the
PUC voted 5-0 for the increases, which take effect immediately
for the 25 million Californians served by Pacific Gas and Electric
Co. and Southern California Edison Co.
"The
PUC has done all it can," commission President Loretta Lynch
said. "We have fought back hard in every venue possible against
these unjust energy prices."
Lynch had
proposed the increases as a way to get "electricity hogs"
to conserve on power and stave off blackouts this summer, and
as a way to keep SoCal Edison and PG&E solvent.
SoCal Edison
and PG&E say they have lost more than $13 billion since last
summer because of high wholesale electricity prices and because
California's 1996 deregulation law prevents the utilities from
passing those costs on to their customers.
Some ratepayers
and consumer groups have branded the plan a rip-off.
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