Posted on by Californiacontrarian

The Canary In the Coal Mine ?

I just read some interesting data in the San Diego Union Tribune, a notoriously liberal “newspaper.” The data in this article had to do with the number of individuals in California who were unable to pay their monthly gas & electric bill. 

In California there are three major suppliers of electricity, SDGE, PGE, and SCE. For those who got their power from SDGE, 25.1% were not able to pay their bill as of 3/31/23. (the average amount owed was $743.91!)

For PGE, 20.4% of its customers could not pay their monthly bill (the average amount owed was $850.89!). For SCE, 16.1% were not able to pay their 3/31/23 bill ( the average amount owed was $977.64!) 

All in all, 4 million out of 14.7 million residential units in the state of California were at least one month behind. Over 27% could not pay their 3/31/23 power bill!

Keep in mind that solar panels are quite the rage here in California, and these individuals who have solar panels basically pay nothing for electricity as their solar panels are generating more than enough power for their own individual use, and most are able to sell their excess power back to the local electric company. If a lot of homes are paying nothing for electricity, then it means that eventually those without solar panels will have to pay more for electricity, because the fixed expenses of the electrical company do not suddenly disappear.

Could what is happening here in California be a so-called canary in the coal mine  … a preview of what’s to come.

Is this deluge of people who are not able to pay their gas/electric bills similar to the canary in the coal mine? If so, what’s in store for the rest of California’s 14.7 million residential units? … Hmmm!

5/11/23

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