It's in the news. PG&E won a 21% rate hike from the PUC last August, and it took effect on Jan 1, 2017.
So why? Natural gas is one of the most abundant and lowest cost energy sources in the world today. All of the PG&E generating plants use natural gas. the prices should have decreased.
But the market is horribly skewed in PG&E's favor:
1) For the vast majority of customers, PG&E is a monopoly. there is no other source of gas and electricity customers can run to. No competition.
2) PG&E has a huge obligation from the San Bruno debacle. All told, it will cost them about $5 billion. They need to recoup those costs somewhere. Customer get to pay for their mistake.
3) the PUC allowed a 21% price increase. This is extremely unusual. Most rate increases allowed by PUC's around the country generally run 2% - 4%. Nobody gripes too much. My guess is that at the PUC public hearings, the PG&E lawyers made a compelling argument, and no one from the public showed up. Did they have the hearings on July 4th weekend to be sure no one showed up? I'm gonna go research it to find out. Report later.