CPUC Affordability Report Shows that Wildfires, Not Bioenergy, Are Driving Electricity Rate Increases

In February, the CPUC issued a report in response to the Governor’s Executive Order on energy affordability. The CPUC found that the big four causes of electricity rate increases are: wildfires, Net Energy Metering, transmission and distribution. The report also found that bioenergy programs – the existing large biomass facilities and new, distributed scale facilities – together only add .3 percent to electricity utility bills. That means that the distributed scale bioenergy program known as BioMAT is adding only a few pennies per household per month, less than one dollar per year per household. And that doesn’t account for the ratepayer savings that BioMAT provides by helping to mitigate wildfire costs and providing firm, renewable power that increases energy reliability.

You can download the CPUC’s Affordability Report here.