California energy regulators on Thursday denied a request from the state's big electric utilities to make homeowners pay a bigger share of the funding for several social programs.
Although few of them realize it, utility customers in California help pay the electric and gas bills for people who have trouble affording the service. But early last year, the state's three investor-owned utilities asked state regulators to change the funding formula. The changes would have shifted some of the funding burden away from the utilities' business customers and onto residential customers.
That infuriated consumer advocates, who claimed the businesses were trying to avoid paying their fair share. The utilities countered that the change would help lower the cost of doing business in California. On Thursday, the California Public Utilities Commission sided with consumer advocates and rejected the utilities' request.
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