PG&E and Chapter 11: What Does it Mean for You?

Following the California wildfires, PG&E is now filing for bankruptcy due to the prospect of billions of dollars in damages to their infrastructure. Don’t worry too much, though. The company will continue to run as normal while the courts decide what to do with all the incurred debt. If PG&E is forced to borrow big sums of money to fix the problem, then we could see more rate hikes to our gas and electric services. For example, we’re still paying for PG&E’s 2001 bankruptcy filing. If you look closely at your PG&E bill under “DWR Bond Charge,” you’ll see it.

The main takeaway? It’s valuable to be in control of our energy independence as much as possible. Otherwise, we remain at the whim of a company that has been quite unstable. If we look at electric rates over the last thirty years, there’s about a 5% average cost increase every year, and that really adds up over time.

Many homeowners and businesses have decided to break free of these rate hikes and become more energy independent by installing LED lighting, more efficient appliances, and a solar system. By taking actions like this, we can save ourselves thousands of dollars in the long run and reduce the amount of damage being done to the earth through the extraction of fossil fuels. It’s a great time to GO SOLAR now and TAKE CONTROL OF YOUR UTILITY BILL.

by Oliver Canbazoglu