SDG&E customers could be charged differently

Good Morning, I’m Debbie Cruz….it’s Monday, April 10th.

S-D-G-and-E looks into changing how they charge customers for electricity.More on that next. But first... let’s do the headlines….

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San Diego County health officials have been tracking an increase in hepatitis A cases since mid-February.

Health officials have been trying to prevent another outbreak like we saw in 20-17.

Deputy Public Health Officer Dr. Cameron Kaiser says the county has been working with cities to increase sanitation and vaccination efforts, and so far there’s been no official outbreak.

“We’re now up to 16 confirmed cases in San Diego County for 2023, that’s an increase of two from our last weekly update and works out to about five per month so far. ”

More than half the cases this year have been among those people who are homeless.

Hep-A is commonly spread through fecal matter.

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A study from the Scripps Research Institute shows that cravings for alcohol can be medically controlled.

The study focused on apremilast, a drug that’s been approved by the F-D-A for use on the skin condition psoriasis.

Scripps Research conducted a clinical trial with 50 people who had severe alcohol use disorder.

It showed those who used the drug reduced their drinking by more than half.

Apremilast is sold by the brand name Otezla.

Researchers say the next step is to test it on a larger, more diverse group of drinkers.

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The sunshine and warm weather is expected to continue early this week.

The National Weather Service says today and tomorrow will be the warmest days.

We can expect sunny skies today, with temps in the 70s.

Tomorrow will still be sunny, but temps will drop to the high 60s.

And then the weather is expected to cool down on Wednesday.

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From KPBS, you’re listening to San Diego News Now. Stay with me for more of the local news you need.

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California regulators could completely upend the way utility bills are calculated in the state.

Recently passed legislation A-B 205 requires the California Public Utilities Commission to put together an income-based fee for the state’s utility customers.

Environment reporter Erik Anderson says S-D-G-AND-E submitted their plan on Friday.

California lawmakers opened the door to a major overhaul of utility pricing when they passed Assembly Bill 205.  It requires the California Public Utilities Commission to develop an income-based monthly fee system for the state’s utility customers.  It is a move that fits well with San Diego Gas and Electric’s vision on rates. “We’ve been focused a lot on comprehensive rate reform.” SDGE Senior Vice President Scott Crider says the current system rolls all the costs of maintaining, protecting and developing the grid into the cost of a kilowatt hour.  That’s one reason why SDGE customers pay the highest electricity rates in the state, almost 47 cents a kilowatt hour. The actual cost of electricity is less than half that.  The utility proposal separates the cost of electricity and the cost of maintaining the grid. This is really about taking our existing rates and really changing how electricity is priced for customer.  Again, to make it simpler.  To make it more predictable and to really create that saving for low-income customers. San Diego Gas And Electric’s proposal moves those grid upkeep and development costs into a fixed monthly fee.   That would drive down the kilowatt hour rate for electricity.  And just like the existing system, customers who use more electricity pay more. Scott Crider SDGE senior vice president “We really think that that is a way to keep bills stable.  Make it more transparent. And again it helps us lower the cost of electricity by about 42 percent. The size of the mandatory fee would be based on household income.  The utility suggests four levels.  From a low of $24 dollars month for a household of four making 28-thousand dollars a year, to a high of 128 dollars a month for households of four making more than 180-thousand dollars a year. “The fact is, is that lower-and-middle income customers on average are going to save money.  And we think that even our higher income customers, may not benefit right away, are going to see some very substantial savings as they begin to add those EV’s that electric water heater in response to all the new state mandates here in California.“ And the utility argues that the lower electricity rate would encourage state residents to embrace technology that uses electricity instead of fossil fuels.  It’s an idea U-C Berkeley professor Severin Borenstein offered recently in a study commissioned by the non partisan group Next 10.  He argued income based fees bring more equity into utility rates and help encourage customers to buy climate friendly technology. “So it would definitely improve the economics of electrification.  Whether it’s transportation, home heating, water heating, cooking, stoves and so forth.” Customers would be more likely to install appliances that use electricity because its cheaper.“There have been no pilots, no experiments, no trials as you call them, to see if this even works.” Ahmad Faruqui is a Bay area economist who’s worked on utility rate cases for decades.   He says the customers will likely focus on the overall bill, not the lower cost of electricity and the high fixed charge. He says overall electricity bills are widely expected to keep going up, even under this proposal. And he says utilities around the country have had mixed success adding even small fixed charges. “And suddenly to go from zero dollars to even go to 25 dollars is a humongous leap.  Then to go all the way to 128 dollars  and to justify it on the basis of saying, we are just trying to make the state mandate more affordable.  That’s just hyperbole.” The solar industry is also bracing for bad news.  New rules taking effect this month slash the value of rooftop generated electricity that can be sold back to the grid.  Fixed monthly fees would make it even harder for residents to recover the cost of installing solar panels.   The Solar Rights Alliance’s Dave Rosenfeld thinks the plan will be good for utility balance sheets, but he’s not sure customers will benefit. “In general, high fixed charges discourage people from reducing their energy use whether through energy efficiency, conservation or rooftop solar. We know that.  That’s like hands down a proven thing.”  The California Public Utilities Commission is considering a number of proposals and regulators will have the final decision on how income based fixed fees will be determined and where and when the fees will be applied. Erik Anderson KPBS News.

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On the topic of bills… Auto loans in San Diego and Imperial counties are getting bigger and longer.

Reporter Katie Hyson looked into how this is affecting low-income San Diegans.

Doing budgets one on one with individuals and families, I’ve been noticing the car payment is getting a little higher. It’s becoming a little concerning in many cases. Felipe Arevalo is a community outreach coordinator for San Diego financial literacy, a nonprofit that helps people manage their finances. It's making them put other things on hold, perhaps saving . . . or being able to purchase a home. The average balance on a new auto loan in San Diego and Imperial counties is over ten thousand dollars more than it was at the start of the pandemic. That means longer loans, more interest and a higher chance borrowers will owe more than the car is worth. If you find yourself behind on your loan, Arevalo recommends talking to your lender. Sometimes the lenders will have programs to help you out. Review your budget, see if there's things that you can cut. And then if it's available to you, you could look into possibly refinancing that auto loan. Arevalo says many people have no choice but to take on these loans. They live in places where public transit is not a viable option. Katie Hyson, KPBS News.

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Some debt collectors have used questionable tactics – things like harassing phone calls, or threatening to have people arrested.

Congress and states like California passed laws to curb these kinds of practices – but they still happen.

inewsource reporter Jake Harper has a story about a California company that’s been accused of defrauding people and courts across the state, using an illegal tactic known as sewer service.

You’ve probably seen process servers in movies – they hand envelopes to people being sued, and say “You’ve been served.” That step is legally required. People have the right to defend themselves in court. BUT, Joe Villaseñor, who teaches law at the University of San Diego, says consumers fighting their cases … that's a losing, proposition for these debt collectors because …the longer it goes, the more expensive it gets.That creates an incentive for something called sewer service: the process server never really delivers a court summons to the defendant – it’s as if someone threw it in the sewer. When that defendant fails to show up, the court often sides with the debt collector – in what’s called a default judgment. With the force of law behind them, Villaseñor says the debt collector can garnish someone’s wages or seize their assets. the ideal situation is that they sue someone and they don't respond, and then they can just go use the court system to collect Michelle Navarro says she was a victim of sewer service. Years ago, she and her husband took out a loan to buy a 2005 Ford Ranger. And what happened is, my husband had gotten laid off and we couldn't afford it anymore, so I called the company and said, Hey, can you come pick it up? She thought she resolved her debt in 2013. But it wasn’t erased. She didn’t know, but the lender sold it off, and it ended up with a Pasadena-based company called Achievable Solutions. Which sued Navarro in San Diego County last year. Only, she says a process server never came by with papers. She only found out because an attorney sent her a letter, asking to represent her. if they hadn’t sent me a letter I would be none the wiser Three other people told me similar stories: none of them knew Achievable Solutions had sued them. And two already had default judgments against them for thousands of dollars. Achievable Solutions has sued hundreds of Californians. I looked at dozens of filings from July 2019 to July 2022, and in those cases, no one was ever handed a summons directly. Process servers gave the summons to a substitute – often, a John or Jane Doe. And until recently, only one person in San Diego County ever filed a response in court: Michelle Navarro. After she got that letter, Navarro Googled Achievable Solutions, and found the company and its associates have been sued in Alameda County for exactly what she says happened to her. Kai Haswell filed that case on behalf of Bay Area Legal Aid, which provides legal services to low-income people. There's a really egregious conspiracy to commit fraud on the courts here. She and her team looked into the company and laid out several red flags in the lawsuit: More John Does. More Jane Does.. The process server would have had to drive impossibly fast to knock on people’s doors. And it turns out Achievable Solutions and the process server company are linked, which Haswell says could give the process server an incentive to lie [and say people were served, when maybe they weren’t.] These are all the same people performing this scam and controlling these entities together. Takashi Cheng, the man who incorporated both businesses, says this is all a misunderstanding. First, the ties between the companies. Cheng described that as “vertical integration.” For us it's much more efficient and economical to have everything in the house. He later said that he was no longer involved with Achievable Solutions. About the false information filed with the courts – He says it’s not a conspiracy, it was a data problem. And people in these lawsuits really were served with papers. I try to be as transparent as possible, and I don't really have anything to hide But Haswell isn’t swayed by his arguments. More than a year after filing her lawsuit, she has yet to talk with anyone from the company, or any of the process servers named in court filings. In fact, she’s not even sure the process servers are real people. From San Diego, I’m Jake Harper. 

TAG: inewsource is an independently funded, nonprofit partner of KPBS.

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Coming up.... Our KPBS film critic tells us her review on the movie ‘Smoking Causes Coughing’, that’s playing in San Diego this week. We’ll have that story, just after the break.

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D-C and Marvel both have new superhero movies out.

But film critic Beth Accomando wants to know if you have heard of a group of Avengers known as Tobacco Force?

Here’s her review of ‘Smoking Causes Coughing,’ that’s playing at Digital Gym Cinema through Thursday.

If John Waters – the Sultan of Sleaze, the Prince of Puke, and the King of Schlock – declares your film “a superhero movie for idiots” and “One of the best movies of the year!” You are obviously doing something right but maybe in a way that’s also absolutely wrong. Smoking Causes Coughing follows a team of superheroes known as Tobacco Force as they fight evil and destroy monsters that even a child dismisses as a man in a rubber suit. The carnage from that first battle is so ridiculously extreme that we can almost feel the splatter in the theater. But then French filmmaker Quetin Dupieux is all about being ridiculous. In the film Rubber, a tire was the main character and in Mandibles it was a giant fly. Smoking Causes Coughing starts strong with a hilarious takedown of superhero tropes but then drifts into low key loopiness before it kind of fizzles out. But Dupieux is just so delightfully quirky and sweetly affable that I always look forward to what he does and I urge you to give his films a try. Beth Accomando KPBS News.

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That’s it for the podcast today. As always you can find more San Diego news online at KPBS dot org. I’m Debbie Cruz. Thanks for listening and have a great Monday.