The story of past, steady increases in our electric bills is here.  One could see the next PG&E hand reaching into our pockets a mile away.  The CPUC's four commissioners rubber-stamped the latest request on Thursday (NBC notes a new board member, who until recently headed the consumer watchdog arm of the CPUC, recused himself from voting.)  The Merc is reporting this vote's effect will be:

This year’s January bills were roughly $53.77 higher than the bills in January 2023, when combined monthly charges for residential customers receiving combined services were averaging $240.73.  (Ed:  That is a 22.3% increase in a year).

Monthly electric bills for a typical residential customer monthly bill are slated to increase by an average of $3.65. The gas bill for a typical residential customer is expected to rise by $1.03 a month, PG&E estimated.

Starting in April, the average monthly PG&E bill for combined services is slated to be around $299.18 a month — just shy of the ominous milestone of $300 a month.

NBC also notes "There is another rate hike in the works. In that case the utility wants to charge $10 more per month, on average, to pay for PG&E’s repairs related to storm damage last year."

Keep that in mind as you run your numbers on a new induction stove, a heat pump, the electric leaf blower you must buy and that EV you have been thinking about.  Hoping to stem the rising tide with rooftop solar just got harder thanks to the very same CPUC.  Commercial customers aren't immune so these increases will ripple through to grocies, restaurant tabs, and pretty much everything else.  It turns out Bidenflation isn't the only source of the pain.

3/12:  Here's a little update from today's Comicle front page.  I'd call it Unintended Consequences, but it is totally foreseeable….