Calitics alterted me to this amazing blog post by David Cay Johnston, one of the foremost tax experts in the country and one of the few reporters who understands and writes honestly about tax law. Turns out that the California Public Utilities Commission wants to allow regulated utilities to collect money from ratepayers for taxes that the utilities never have to pay.
That’s right — the utilities (in this case a gas pipeline company, but the policy could apply just as well to PG&E at some point) charge you for the money they are supposed to pay in corporate income taxes — except that they’re exempt from those taxes. So they just keep your money. Wow.