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° (EE +e 8 eee Ls eettiel +P ro Cm te eempetos ate PE a ee ae oe ee ee St Me at ee See a aay Ps rr aL Nee ge hake cA heme = PN i oe TS Ri Te RR. FEE Oe oA Ite © SERINIY O SI Ce SP uw “6 Plea to PUC A $7.88 Addition To Bills Hy Michael Taylor Pacific Gas and Electric Co. asked the state Public Utilities Comntission yester- day for electricity and gas rate increases totaling Sq? million—the largest such re- quest In the company's his- tory. The application, WH ap proved. would raise the av- erage householder’s monthly bill of $28.35 by $7.88. in January, the company asked for a $63 million rale fncrease — for cooking and heating gas only. A year and a half ago, K asked for a general rate in crease of $233 milla. If all these requests are granted in full by the state. remilatory ageacy, the aver- age householder's til! wil) go up $11.71. The requests tolal $938 million, Of yesterday's request, the utility asked that about $140 million — $1.47-a-month to the househelder — be . niade efiective April L Most of this Orure repre sents what the aulity calls “affset quarterly increases | PGCE Asks for - Biggest Rate Rise Another Lawmaker Tales Socramenio Assemblyman John Gara- mendi has joined the lower house’s Great Coat and Tie Rebellion, The Democratic Lawmaker appeared at an Assembly committee hearing yester- day dressed in a western style jacket, matching pants and open necked shirt — wilhout the traditional coat and tie. Assemblyman Ken Meade (Dem-Oaklund) raised a stir when he announced last week that he would continue to occasionally shun a tie. Garamendi, a rancher — requests made every - tree inunthd to account fee the rising price of fuet used to zenerale ciectricily. are not normally sub fo the scrutiny of public heurints and are Usoaly granted, if net albrays fully, by the commission. PGAE officials sald that of thie $190 milion, $103 million woulé go foward “higher costs of the furt the company buys lo penerate eleciticite” and the olher SF million would account for @ price Increase of gas pute cha:nd from FE Paco Nate fat tias Co. for sale lo PGAE tuttamers. "That leaves, of yester- - day's action, $497 millea, Rack Page Col, ¢ - At from the San Joaquin Valley foothll community of Mo- kejumne Hil, satd hia dress seaterday had not been prompted by Meade's state mec. ' “f just fett Hke wearing it," he said, adding that drese was “irrelevart to the way we do our work.” He said he had worn a similar outfit once before at a commilice hearing and might do so on the Astem bly Boor. “Jt would depend on bow © I felt that morning when I got ap,” be said. = om pc® From Pore ft This is called a “gencral rate in¢rease” and is made annually by PG&E te meet the increased costs, new ta- bor -cuntracis, production, reseurch anit construction, The $497 miilinn increase Will be the subject of several months ef public he:trings and will probably not go inte effect. if granted, until some lime in 1976. State records show that over the past five years, the Mlility has been prauted rate iN¢ereases totaling S600 mil- lion--about $7 miltton less than the utility asked for yesterday, PGLE currently enjovs a six per cent rate of return and 11.3 per cent rate of re- turn on ils stock. This figure is fixed by the commission. POSE. officials said the nes rates, if granted, would increase the, rate of relum or_profit margin) to [0.15 pr een and the Tate of re- turn any is_ tor ou! ing {3 percent. * tt making the latest opp. | enion, PG&E beard chair- tuan Shermer L, Sibley sald, “we are: distressed, as everxone ts, over the bur- Zens of inflation and reces- sien, expecially on those peo- ple sho are struggtiog ta make ends meet. ne “But.” he added, “there ts simply no wy we can avoid the energy crisis and the . Urastle Impact of inflaticn on utility rates. We have te Meet our costs and must be reflected tn rates if the quality of utility service is to be maintatned.” A longtime crilic of the utilities, Sylvia Sleze!, diree- tor of Tow2rd Utility Rate Normalization, said of the Tate fexuest, “‘il's so outra- Geos i’m proctically She charged that fn the S497 «million part of the re quest “jt Is ahsolutcly ap- Palling that there is no men- tion of rate reforin. POSE ts asking the xmall residcntiat bill payer to assume the bur- Gen of (his entire request.” ‘ . some elec po a MT oe eee @ etree + = NRG er Lek ari Ae me te te ree * eee pee ae wees nmr 7. 7 Cf 7ARHR Pr AA Me