Governor Newsom is defending his administration’s implementation of a more “equitable” household utility fee scheme that will be based not on usage, but on the household’s annual income. The California proposal, which was born out of a green energy bill passed by the state legislature in 2022, is facing pushback from some of the most liberal members of Mr. Newsom’s party as it appears to punish working class and middle class families, while also hindering the development of solar energy.

“Today we will be introducing legislation to roll back the public utility commission’s proposed income-graduated fixed fee,” state assemblywoman Jacqui Irwin said. “Electricity rates have skyrocketed throughout the state. … Our constituents have had enough and so have we. It’s time to put some reasoning back into how we charge for electricity in California.”

The proposed rule from the California Public Utilities Commission is set to implement a new income-based fee scheme in July of this year, subjecting some Californians to even higher utilities bills and government fees, even if they take the conservation-minded approach of developing clean energy for their own homes, such as putting solar panels on their roofs. 

The proposal from the utilities commission, which is still being finalized, could cost families as much as an addition $1,000 per year, Ms. Irwin said.

The pro-solar energy group  Solar Rights Alliance says that the proposal will threaten the progress made in developing clean energy sources because it just shifts costs around and punishes middle class families who make their homes more green. They say that by including an unreasonably high monthly utility fee, California’s government is disincentivizing green energy. 

“This mandatory Utility Tax would increase electricity bills on millions for working Californians who live in apartments, condos, and small homes, have rooftop solar, or work to conserve energy,” the group wrote in a blog post. “A Utility Tax does not fix that underlying problem. It simply shifts around who pays what for an overly expensive and unreliable system. It rearranges deck chairs on the Titanic, so to speak.”

One of the California legislature’s most liberal members, state senator Scott Wiener, called the new income-based fee proposal “outrageous.” Mr. Wiener says that a family of four that makes a household income of just $70,000 annually will be priced out of life in the Golden State. 

State assemblyman Marc Berman said that “Californians are fed up” and that his “constituents are pissed off.” 

“I know because they told me over and over again at every community coffee that I had in the fall and winter,” Mr. Berman said. “Their rates keep going up.”
Despite pushback, Mr. Newsom’s office says the governor will not abandon the income-graduated plan. “California must combat climate change by rapidly expanding the use of clean electricity in our vehicles and buildings, while at the same time making it more affordable for low-income Californians,” a spokesman for Mr. Newsom told the Washington Free Beacon.