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PG&E Has Several Programs That Can Help Low-Income Families Save On Energy Costs

Published

7 years ago

October 15, 2018

The U.S. Energy Information Administration recently released the “Winter Fuels Outlook” data which predicts that average household costs for all major heating fuels will rise because of the colder weather forecasted for this year. This could mean higher energy bills for households just as the Residential Consumption Survey (RECS) found that one in three US households face challenges in paying their energy utility bills.

This is one of the reasons Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) offers many programs like CARE, FERA, ESA and REACH to assist customers with their energy bills.

Marlene Murphy-Roach, director of the Income Qualified Programs at PG&E, said, “as a service provider, we want to ensure that we have the right programs to address the unique needs of disadvantaged communities as well as the lower income or the limited income customer segment.”

RECS found that lower-income households “reported reducing or forgoing necessities such as food and medicine to pay an energy bill.” Also, households surveyed by RECS also reported, “keeping their home at an unhealthy or unsafe temperature” because they couldn’t pay their energy bill.

The Energy Assistance Program (ESA), Murphy-Roach said, also provides customers information on how to reduce energy usage during the wintertime. The ESA program is available to customers who are qualified for California Alternate Rates Energy (CARE), including homeowners and renters. Customers can get weatherization, such as weather stripping, attic insulation and replace older, inefficient appliances, such as refrigerators.

Customers can also sign up for Budget Billing during the wintertime, said Murphy-Roach, “to help level the bill and remove the peaks they will see in the winter months or the summer months when they are using lots of heat or air conditioning.” Customers can further become aware of their energy use through Bill Forecast Alerts, “which sends notifications to help customers avoid the surprise of a high bill and take action early to change behaviors to better control usage.

“Customers who find themselves in tough situations, experience a real hardship [where] they cannot pay their bill,” she said have a one-time chance to apply for a program called REACH (Relief for Energy Assistance Through Community Help). Customers can use REACH once every 18 months to gain assistance through community help which pays for customers utility bill during an emergency.

Another program she recommends is the Home Energy Checkup, which helps customers perform a self-assessment and personalize their energy plan to help them save money. The Home Energy Checkup is designed to give “ immediate tips and tricks that [customers] can use and execute…so that they can take control of their usage.” She said, “all you have to do is sign up online and become informed.”

“For me, this is more than just a job, for me, this is having a job that actually makes a huge difference to a lot of our customers,” said Murphy-Roach. “We are committed to get to the hard-to-reach communities,” Murphy-Roach said, and she wants to make sure people are “aware of all the different discounted programs…and that those programs can be combined.” She wants to ensure that faith-based organizations and community organizations recognize that programs can be combined to really help the impact and drive down the average bill for customers who qualify for the programs. “We want to get to a place where a 100 percent of all the customers that qualify for their programs are enrolled,” said Murphy-Roach.

Marisol Beas | California Black Media

Posts by Marisol Beas | California Black Media

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Oakland Post: Week of April 8 – 14, 2026

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of April 8 – 14, 2026

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6 hours ago

April 10, 2026

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Oakland Post: Week of April 1 – 7, 2026

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of April 1 – 7, 2026

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5 days ago

April 6, 2026

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Black Artists in America, Installation Three Wraps at the Dixon Gallery and Gardens

TRI-STATE DEFENDER — With 50+ paintings, sculptures and assemblages, the exhibit features artists like Varnette Honeywood from Los Angeles, whose pieces appeared in Bill Coby’s private collection (before they were auctioned off) and on “The Cosby Show.” Also included are works by Alonzo Davis, another Los Angeles artist who opened one of the first galleries there where Black Artists could exhibit.

Published

2 weeks ago

March 24, 2026

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By Candace A. Gray | Tri-State Defender

The tulips gleefully greet those who enter the gates at the Dixon Gallery & Gardens on an almost spring day. More than 650,000 bulbs of various hues are currently on display. And they are truly breathtaking.

Inside the gallery, and equally as breathtaking, is the “Black Artists in America, From the Bicentennial to September 11” exhibit, which runs through Sunday, March 29. This is the third installment of a three-part series that started years ago and illustrates part of the Black experience through visual arts in the 20th century.

“This story picks up where part two left off,’’ said Kevin Sharp, the Linda W. and S. Herbert Rhea director for the Dixon. “This era is when we really start to see the emergence of these important Black artists’ agency and freedom shine through. They start to say and express what they want to, and it was a really beautiful time.”

With 50+ paintings, sculptures and assemblages, the exhibit features artists like Varnette Honeywood from Los Angeles, whose pieces appeared in Bill Coby’s private collection (before they were auctioned off) and on “The Cosby Show.” Also included are works by Alonzo Davis, another Los Angeles artist who opened one of the first galleries there where Black Artists could exhibit.

“Though [Davis] was from LA, he actually lived in Memphis for a decade,” said Sharp. “He was a dean at Memphis College of Art, and later opened the first gallery in New York owned and operated by black curators.”

Another featured artist is former NFL player, Ernie Barnes. His work is distinctive. Where have you seen one of his most popular paintings, Sugar Shack? On the end scene and credits of the hit show “Good Times.” His piece Saturday Night, Durham, North Carolina, 1974 is in this collection.

Memphis native James Little’s “The War Baby: The Triptych” is among more than 50 works featured in “Black Artists in America, From the Bicentennial to September 11” at the Dixon Gallery & Gardens, the final installment of a three-part series highlighting the impact and evolution of Black artists through 2011.

The exhibit features other artists with Memphis ties, including abstract painter James Little, who was raised in a segregated Memphis and attended Memphis Academy of Art (before it was Memphis College of Art). He later moved to New York, became a teacher and an internationally acclaimed fixture in the art world in 2022 when he was named a Whitney Biennial selected artist at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York.

Other artists like Romare Bearden, who had a Southern experience but lived up North, were featured in all three installments.

“During this period of time, he was a major figure,” said Sharp. “He wrote one of the first books on the history of African American art during a time when there were more Black academics, art teachers, more Black everything!”

Speaking of Black educators, Sharp said the head curator behind this tri-part series and Dixon’s partner in the arts is Earnestine Jenkins, Ph.D., an art history professor at the University of Memphis, who also earned a Master of Arts degree from Memphis State University (now UofM). “We began working with Dr. Jenkins in 2018,” he said.

Sharp explained that it takes a team of curators, registrars, counterparts at other museums, and more, about three years to assemble an exhibit like this. It came together quite seamlessly, he added. Each room conjured up more jaw-dropping “wows” than the one before it. Each piece worked with the others to tell the story of Black people and their collective experience during this time period.

One of the last artists about whom Sharp shared information was Bettye Saar, who will turn 100 years old this year. She’s been working in Los Angeles for 80 years and is finally getting her due. Her medium is collages or assemblages, and an incredible work of hers is on display. She’s married to an artist and has two daughters, also artists.

The exhibit catalogue bears some of these artists’ stories, among other scholarly information.

The exhibit, presented by the Joe Orgill Family Fund for Exhibitions, is culturally and colorfully rich. It is a must see and admission to the Dixon is free.

Visit https://www.dixon.org/ to learn more.

Fun Facts: An original James Little design lives in the flooring of the basketball court at Tom Lee Park, and he makes and mixes his own paint colors.