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| For Immediate Release September 5, 2003 |
Sacramento, CA- - The $1 billion ratepayer refund approved today by the California Public Utilities Commission provides industrial customers with a far more modest refund than they are entitled.
“Today’s ruling is bad news for industrial customers who have borne the brunt of rate increases since 2001,” said Jack Stewart, president of the California Manufacturers & Technology Association.
Industrial customers were disproportionately impacted by the record rate increases approved by the CPUC in the spring of 2001 when rates for industrial customers increased by 80 to 100 percent while half of residential users saw no rate increase.
The rate refund, which will appear on customer’s bills as a one-time credit, is due to a lower revenue requirement this year for the Department of Water Resources, which had procured power for the state’s investor-owned utilities from early 2001 until December, 2002.
Instead of fairly distributing the rate refund in proportion to the manner in which rates were increased in 2001, the CPUC decision provides for an across-the-board bill credit for all customer classes, which means the more than 50% of residential customers who saw no rate increase due to DWR power purchases will be getting a rate refund, too.
This massive cost shift from residential to large customers, in place since 2001, has cost California's economy in jobs and lost opportunities. California's electricity costs are nearly double the national average.
The general weakness in the manufacturing sector in California has been exacerbated by the burden of skyrocketing energy costs. According to the latest labor statistics, California has lost 300,000 manufacturing jobs since January, 2001, or 16 percent of the industrial workforce.