PG and E customers will see a noticeable hike in their bills later this month. The increase for the average customer who receives both electricity and gas service will be nearly nine-dollars. Kristi Jourdan, with the marketing and communications division, says it’s part of a package of increases the Public Utilities Commission approved in December to cover the cost of their growing wildfire mitigation program…

During the past decade, PG and E has been found to have caused a string on catastrophic wildfires. The Commission also levied a record-setting one-point-94 billion dollar penalty for its role in 2017 and 2018 wildfires. Jourdan says the latest rate hike will not be used to cover that. She says it is being used for increasing gas service expenses…

The utility also emerged from a bankruptcy proceeding last year to reorganize its finances.